Tuesday 5 February 2013
Singapore"s Soilbuild Said to Plan Industrial Property REIT IPO
Soilbuild Group Holdings Ltd., a
Singapore developer, is considering an initial public offering
of its industrial properties, said three people with knowledge
of the matter.
Soilbuild, run by Lim Chap Huat, may list the properties as
a real estate investment trust in the city-state, said the
people, asking not to be identified as the plans are private.
The IPO may take place in the second half of 2013 and could
raise about S$500 million ($404 million), two people said.
The company, founded in 1976 as a residential developer,
expanded into building offices and factories eight years ago,
and now has about 6.3 million square feet of industrial space,
according to its website. Lim Cheng Hwa, Soilbuild’s director of
capital management, declined to comment on the potential IPO.
Real estate investment trusts have raised $8.3 billion in
Singapore share sales over the last three years, data compiled
by Bloomberg Show. The 24-member FTSE Straits Times REIT Index
is up about 40 percent in that period. Mapletree Industrial
Trust, which owns business parks, factories and warehouses, has
risen almost 50 percent since its S$853 million IPO in October
2010, the data show.
The Singapore government last month imposed as much as 15
percent in stamp duties on sellers of industrial properties such
as warehouses and logistic buildings to curb speculation, after
prices doubled in the past three years and outpaced the increase
in rents. The REIT Index has advanced 2.5 percent since the
measures were announced.
Soilbuild raised S$10.7 million in an IPO in 2005, selling
shares at 31 Singapore cents apiece, and was taken private by
Lim five years later at 80 Singapore cents a share.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Joyce Koh in Singapore at
jkoh38@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Philip Lagerkranser at
lagerkranser@bloomberg.net
Singapore"s Soilbuild Said to Plan Industrial Property REIT IPO
Singapore "helping" match-fixing inquiry
Singapore police have said they are they helping European authorities in their investigation into an international crime syndicate that rigged hundreds of football matches in Europe and elsewhere.
In the latest indication that the Asian city-state is at the heart of a global match-fixing empire, Europol said on Monday they had uncovered a network rigging hundreds of games, including in the Champions League and World Cup qualifiers.
Europol said a five-country investigation had identified 380 suspicious matches targeted by a Singapore-based betting cartel, whose illegal activities stretched to players, referees and officials across the world.
In a statement on Tuesday, Singapore police said.”The authorities in Singapore are assisting the European authorities in their investigations into an international match-fixing syndicate that purportedly involves Singaporeans.
“Singapore takes a strong stance against match-fixing and is committed to working with international enforcement agencies to bring down transnational criminal syndicates, including those that involve the acts of Singaporeans overseas, and protect the integrity of the sport.”
A further 300 suspicious matches have been identified outside Europe in Africa, Asia, and South and Central America, in the course of the Europol investigation.
Threat to clean image
Analysts said revelations about the scale of the scandal could damage Singapore’s squeaky-clean image as one of the world’s least corrupt nations.
Singapore’s role in international match-rigging has long been clear, with Wilson Raj Perumal jailed in Finland in 2011 and another Singaporean, Tan Seet Eng or Dan Tan, wanted in Italy over the “calcioscommesse” scandal.
So far, there apparently has not been any urgency to arrest Tan, despite multiple agencies in Singapore potentially having jurisdiction in the case.
Last May, Singapore authorities charged a top referee and a former Malaysian international with conspiring to fix a Malaysian Super League match.
The latest announcement uncovered the huge scale of the activities, and raised potential problems for Singapore’s reputation, as well as questions about how authorities are dealing with the match-fixing syndicates.
A spokesman for the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau told the Associated Press news agency that Singapore authorities were assisting Europol and Interpol with their investigations but declined to comment on whether or not the CPIB was involved with the investigations, despite being the government body primarily responsible for investigating and prosecuting corruption in the public and private sectors.
‘Serious view’
The Football Association of Singapore (FAS) said it takes “a serious view of allegations pertaining to match-fixing and football corruption” and vowed to “spare no effort” to crack down on any such activities.
“The problem of match-fixing is not just confined to Asia,” FAS said in a statement.
“It is a global problem and FAS will continue to work closely with the relevant authorities, both at the domestic and international levels, to combat match fixing and football corruption aggressively.”
Last February, 18 players in Malaysia were suspended for between two and five years on charges of match-fixing.
Chinese courts handed out lengthy prison sentences last year to senior officials and players for accepting bribes, while South Korea has taken measures to improve the structure of its league after the match-fixing scandal of 2011, when 46 contracted or former players were charged with corruption.
Neil Humphreys, a popular sports columnist and author, asked why “so little is being done to question Singaporean individuals allegedly involved in such a global match-fixing operation”.
“More pertinently, the issue has not received quite the same front-page media attention that it has in other football-popular countries, despite the obvious fact that Singapore is allegedly home to the ringleaders of the world’s biggest match-fixing syndicate,” he told AFP news agency.
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Singapore "helping" match-fixing inquiry
Singapore must tackle gambling epidemic
I can’t say I was surprised when I heard that Europol’s match-fixing investigation centred on a cartel in Singapore.
I have been living in Singapore for a couple of years because I work for TV out here.
In many ways it’s a great place to live, but I’m afraid the gambling culture is a massive problem.
For many people, football is a bit like horse racing in the UK – it’s just a vehicle for betting.
People out here love to wager – they favour handicap betting where one team gets a head start. It’s absolutely huge.
And unfortunately in Singapore, and throughout South-East Asia, there’s not a lot of integrity in the gambling world.
In Singapore nobody takes football seriously as a sport, because if anything unusual happens they ask if money has changed hands.
They like the Premier League when the goals fly in, but you can forget about an in-depth appreciation of the game.
And the domestic league has never taken off – people just don’t care because they’re not in it for the sport. They’re in it for the money. I feel really sorry for the players, who have to play in front of empty stadiums every week.
It’s not good for the profile of the country, which is so developed in many ways – but sport helps you build cultural bridges and this part of the world can’t do that until football becomes about the sport rather than the money-making opportunities, and the authorities get serious about stamping out corruption.
As a player, I never saw any match-fixing. Agreeing to throw a match is the worst crime you can commit as a professional.
You are cheating your team, your fans and the entire game.
I was never offered cash to do anything like that, but if I had been I would have refused on the spot.
There’s no way back once you have crossed that line. How could you ever give 100 per cent or look your team-mates in the face?
I don’t think it’s in the British mentality.
However, what did go on – though not at the clubs I played for – was betting on things like the first throw-in, then booting the ball straight out from the kick-off.
People used to see it as a bit of fun, but as soon as you start doing anything other than playing to win, you take the integrity out of the game.
Any club found to have been involved in match-fixing by this investigation should be banned from all competitions for a year. Any players involved should be banned for life.
You need to make the chance of getting caught, and the punishments meted out, so great that no player is willing to take the risk.
Singapore must tackle gambling epidemic