SG Morning Highlights | Singtel's Australian Unit Optus Fined A$1.5M Over Public Safety Breaches

Advancers / Decliners is 110 to 47, with 94.14 million securities worth S$78.57 million changing hands.

Majority of single family offices (SFOs) in Singapore outsource functions such as IT, human resources, and tax, according to data from Simon & Kucher. The report found that 77% of SFOs outsource IT functions, while 69% tap third-party vendors for tax functions and more than half (51%) also outsource payroll and recruitment activities annually instead of hiring dedicated HR staff. SFOs prefer to outsource HR and tax functions to niche providers given the seasonality of business ascites and cost efficiency of outsourcing. The report also found that seven in 10 SFOs outsource their IT, with technology vendors offering innovative managed services packages to support the administration of family offices.

The Singaporean government is launching a marketing campaign to encourage residents to adopt electric vehicles (EVs) ahead of its plan to phase out new registrations of internal combustion engine cars from 2030. The campaign includes billboards and social media posts portraying EVs in a romantic and exciting light. However, despite a series of incentives and rebates, car ownership in Singapore remains expensive, with all vehicles required to have a certificate of entitlement that can cost more than $100,000, making it one of the most expensive places in the world to own a car.