Daily Briefing: Singtel to buy stocks worth US$525m in Bharti Airtel; Auction sales slumped 46.5% to $55.3m in 2018

And Singapore residents can get a free preview of Jewel Changi Airport from 11-16 April.

From Deal Street Asia:

Singapore Telecommunications (Singtel) is set to buy an approximate US$525m worth of stocks in Indian telecom Bharti Airtel as part of the latter’s efforts to raise US$4.6b through new shares and bonds.

The fundraising plan, announced last month, is aimed at cutting debt and shoring up Bharti Airtel’s balance sheet as the Indian telecom industry reels from the impact of a price war triggered by the entry of Reliance Jio Infocomm.

After the rights offering, Singtel’s effective interest in Airtel will be 35.2%. Singtel has a direct equity stake of about 15%, according to Refinitiv data.

Bharti Airtel’s two other major shareholders, Bharti Group and Bharti Telecom, intend to subscribe to their full entitlement, whilst Singapore’s state-backed GIC Private will commit about 50 billion rupees, Bharti Airtel and Singtel said.

Read more here.

From Property Guru:

The overall value of properties successfully auctioned off in Singapore crashed 46.5% YoY to $55.3m in 2018, according to data from Knight Frank.

At the same time, the number of properties sold under the hammer dropped 25.5% YoY to 35, of which 26 are residential properties. The overall sales translate to a success rate of 3.1%, which is of the 6.2% recorded in 2017.

The lower sales occurred even though the number of auction listings, excluding properties sold before and after auctions, jumped 47.4% to 1,120 on an annual basis.

Read more here.

From Channel News Asia:

Ahead of its opening on 17 April, Singapore residents can get a glimpse of Changi Airport’s mega retail and lifestyle development Jewel Changi Airport from 11-16 April as part of a ticketed event which will be free of charge.

A total of about 500,000 tickets will be available. Registration will open online at jewelpreview.com at 6am on Mar 12. Each member of the public can register for up to four participants.

“During the preview, which will run in four three-hour time blocks from 10am to 10 pm daily, visitors will be able to explore various points of interest in Jewel, such as the lush greenery of the four-storey Forest Valley with two walking trails and take in the magnificent 40m Rain Vortex, the world’s tallest indoor waterfall,” Changi Airport Group (CAG) said.

The $1.7b project, a 10-storey complex consisting of five storeys above ground and five basement floors will be home to more than 280 shops and food and beverage (F&B) outlets.

Read more here.