Singapore Stocks News Of The Week: Yangzijiang, Riverstone, Singapore Press Holdings, And More

Here’s a selection of Singapore-listed companies that released noteworthy announcements this week (in chronological order).

Yangzijiang’s Chairman Returns To Work 

Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Holdings Ltd‘s (SGX: BS6) chairman, Ren Yuanlin, has returned to work and resumed his duties since Monday this week after a four-month absence.

Ren had been away since August 2019 to assist in a confidential investigation carried out by authorities in China.

Ren’s leave of absence was granted by Yangzijiang’s board after TradeWinds, a global shipping news service, reported that Liu Jianguo, who is closely connected to the shipbuilder, was being probed by Beijing’s anti-corruption body for disciplinary violations.

Yangzijiang’s shares are up around 7% since last Friday’s close to S$1.14 apiece at the time of writing.

Riverstone Acquires Land To Expand Business 

Gloves maker, Riverstone Holdings Limited (SGX: AP4), announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Eco Medi Glove Sdn Bhd, had acquired a piece of industrial land located in the state of Perak, Malaysia.

Riverstone will pay RM 4.2 million for the land, which measures around 165,692 square feet.

As of 30 September 2019, Riverstone’s balance sheet carried RM 97.6 million in cash and RM 14.5 million in total borrowings. Therefore, the gloves manufacturer has the financial means to fund the purchase.

The company explained that the land purchase is to support business expansion by building new factories for additional production dipping lines.

Singapore Press Holdings Doubles Student Accommodation Portfolio

Singapore Press Holdings Limited‘s (SGX: T39) wholly-owned subsidiary, Straits Ten Pte Ltd, acquired a portfolio of high-quality purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) assets in the UK. The latest acquisition costing £448 million effectively doubles the company’s PBSA portfolio to S$1.4 billion.

With the additional assets operated and managed by Student Castle Limited now, SPH’s total portfolio will expand to 7,726 beds across 18 cities in the UK and Germany.

The Student Castle portfolio will expand SPH’s footprint across seven new cities in the UK — Cambridge, Oxford, Bath, Brighton, Durham, Edinburgh, and York. The Oxford and Brighton properties are currently under development.

Excluding the properties under construction, the five operational properties have an average age of 2.6 years and have consistently enjoyed close to 100% occupancy.

Around 84% of the beds are near top-ranked and Russell Group universities such as the famous University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge.

SPH said that the latest acquisition is “in line with our strategy to grow recurring income to deliver sustainable returns to shareholders”.

Sembcorp Marine Wins Two Offshore Platform Projects

Sembcorp Marine Ltd‘s (SGX: S51) Sembcorp Marine Offshore Platforms Pte Ltd has bagged two offshore platform contracts worth over S$550 million. Those platforms support the redevelopment
efforts at the Al Shaheen and Tyra fields, located in Qatari waters and the Danish North Sea, respectively.

Sembcorp Marine has so far secured S$1.5 billion worth of new orders this year, an improvement over the total orders received last year.

On Thursday, shares in Sembcorp Marine rose 3% to S$1.32 each at the time of writing.

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