Daily Briefing: Businesses seek more wage subsidies, rental relief; Singapore bankers worry over missed deals amidst new travel restrictions

And medical tech firm Biolidics plans to raise $3.13m through a share placement.

From Channel News Asia:

More wage subsidies, relief on rent and foreign worker levy, as well as broader bridging loan programmes are amongst the types of aid that business owners, industry groups and economists hope the Government would prescribe in its second stimulus package.

Amidst a deepening global spread of COVID-19, they are also hoping for help to be dished out sooner and extended to other sectors beyond tourism and transport.

Last week, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat said a second package of support measures is being worked on as both the global economy and the novel coronavirus outbreak have worsened since the first support package has been announced in Budget 2020.

Reliefs for foreign worker levy and employer Central Provident Fund (CPF) contributions will help with manpower costs, which account for the most significant fixed expense for hotels, according to Patrick Fiat, general manager of Royal Plaza on Scotts.

Echoing that, Singapore Manufacturing Federation’s (SMF) president Douglas Foo said support in employer CPF contributions will help to defray wage costs, whilst acting as an incentive for companies to keep their workers at a time when there are fewer orders.

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From efinancialcareers:

Singapore’s extension of travel restrictions to cover more countries in Asia and Europe has made deal-making even more difficult for bankers.

Singapore has announced that all people who have travelled to ASEAN countries, as well as Japan, Switzerland, or the UK within the last 14 days will be issued with a 14-day stay-home notice (SHN).

The inclusion of ASEAN on the new list is particularly troublesome for both investment bankers and private bankers in Singapore, because the region encompasses some of the markets where their clients are based, including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.

One banker said that short trips in SEA, which have already been curtailed by banks’ internal travel guidelines, are now effectively ruled out because the majority of bankers don’t want to self-isolate.

Unless it’s a straightforward loan or a simple FX or trade finance deal, bankers lose out if they’re not there in person, the banker added.

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From DealStreetAsia:

Medical technology firm Biolidics plans to raise $3.13m (US $2.2m) from a share placement exercise, according to a company statement.

The cancer diagnostic solutions-focused company said it planned to issue 17,858,000 new ordinary shares at an issue price of $0.175 per share, which represents a discount of approximately 7.3% to its volume-weighted average of $0.188 per share, for all trades done on Catalist on March 13.

The company has an issued and paid-up share capital of 242.5 million shares. The placement is said to increase this to 260.358 million shares.

Biolidics said proceeds from the placement would be used for expansion of the company’s businesses through investments, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, collaborations with third parties, and general working capital purposes.

Read more from here.