Daily Briefing: Luxury home prices down to all-time low at 2.9%; Taxpayer money will not be used to aid Hyflux investors

And Singapore-based offshore & marine company Swiber bags $200m from Seaspan Corporation.

From Bloomberg:

Singapore home prices fell for a second straight quarter, with values of luxury dwellings falling the most in almost a decade as property curbs imposed mid-last year took some heat out of the market.

Private residential prices declined 0.6% in the three months ended March 31 from the previous quarter, when they fell 0.1%, the Urban Redevelopment Authority said Monday. Luxury home prices, or residences located in the prime areas, dropped 2.9%, the most since the quarter ended June 2009.

Singaporean authorities have kept a tight leash on the property market since the early part of the decade in a bid to avoid runaway price growth like in Hong Kong, which holds the unenviable title of the world’s least-affordable housing market.

The government in July imposed higher stamp duties and tougher loan-to-value rules to choke off a sudden bout of exuberance.

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From Channel News Asia:

The Government cannot use taxpayers’ money to help investors recoup their investment losses, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Masagos Zulkifli said in Parliament on Monday (1 April), in relation to the current situation with embattled water treatment firm Hyflux.

He was responding to a supplementary question from MP Seah Kian Peng, who had asked if the Government would bail out the investors in the firm.

He added that even if there were any proceeds from the takeover of the Tuaspring desalination plant, there is an order as to “who would get what first”. In this case, he said, Maybank, which is Tuaspring’s sole secured lender, will receive payments from TPL before all other general creditors – including national water agency PUB.

In response to another supplementary question from MP Lee Bee Wah, Mr Masagos added that the Government has also decided that it would not claim compensation for taking over the Tuaspring desalination plant from Hyflux.

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From DealStreet Asia:

In what seems to be a leg-up in the ongoing restructuring exercise adopted by the Swiber Group, the Singapore-headquartered offshore and marine (O&M) company is close to receiving a US$200m investment from New York-listed shipping company Seaspan Corporation.

The funding, which will come in two tranches, will help the beleaguered marine engineering group get back on its feet after over two years in judicial management. The term sheet between the two companies was signed in October 2018 and it has been modified in the latest investment round.

The first tranche of US$10m (previously US$20m) will come in upon closing in exchange for an 80% stake in a new holding company where certain assets of the existing Swiber Group will be transferred. The remaining amount of US$190m (previously US$180m) will be unlocked upon securing the development stage Liquified Natural Gas (LNG)-to-power project in Vietnam and achieving major project milestones.

Read more here.