Daily Briefing: 2019 GDP growth forecast cut to 2.5%; Malaysia lost right to review water price: MFA

And SC Capital has bought Rivervale Mall for $230m.

From Channel News Asia:

The economy is tipped to grow by 2.5% in 2019, the latest quarterly survey from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) showed which is a slight downgrade from the 2.6 per cent in the previous poll and the 2.7% seen in the September survey.

The key manufacturing sector is expected to clock just 2% growth in 2019 – a sharp downgrade from the 3% in December’s survey. This as economists shaved off more than half of their expectations for growth in non-oil domestic exports to 1.1%, from 2.9% previously.

Read more here.

From Channel News Asia:

Singapore has been "clear and consistent" in its position that Malaysia has lost the right to review the price of water under the 1962 Water Agreement, said Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) on Wednesday (Mar 13).

MFA's comments came in response to a media statement by its Malaysian counterpart on Tuesday, in which the latter said that the countries' prime ministers had agreed in November last year to begin discussions over the water agreement.

Read more here.

From Dealstreet Asia:

Real estate investment firm SC Capital Partners, through its SCORE+ fund, has acquired Rivervale Mall from Boston-headquartered AEW Capital Management for $230m (US$170m). SCORE+ has a mandate of investing in core and core-plus direct real estate assets in gateway cities in Asia Pacific, primarily in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Korea. Located in a suburban area in the Northeastern region of Singapore, Rivervale has a shopper catchment of nearly 130,000 residents within a 1 km radius and 25 schools within a 2 km radius.

The three-storey retail centre has a gross lettable area of nearly 81,200 square feet and an adjacent four-storey car park annexe. AEW purchased the mall from CapitaLand Mall Trust in 2015 for $190.5m.

Read more here.

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