Daily Brief Singapore: Centurion Accommodation, Singapore Telecommunications, UI Boustead, Khong Guan, Hai Leck, BDx Data Centres, Ever Glory United Holdings and more

• Net income before tax and before any change in the value of the properties reached S$56.5m in the six months to 30 June 2026 against a Prospectus forecast of S$53.1m, 6.3% above it.
• Finance costs ran 18.8% below their own forecast, and that saving is 83.2% of the whole beat. Profit ran the other way, at S$35.0m against a forecast of S$51.2m, 31.6% below, on a S$19.1m writedown of the properties that the forecast set at zero.
• A lower interest bill rather than fuller buildings produced this result, and the one cost the manager sets for itself overran its own forecast by 31.5%.

• Underlying NPAT +21% YoY (+27% cc); OpCo EBIT +10%, tracking ahead of FY27 guidance; associates PAT S$543M beat despite S$46M SGD headwind.
• Buyback 41% deployed with ~1.1% EPS accretion locked in; asset recycling 75% complete; Nxera on track to double EBITDA by FY28; all capital targets on schedule.
• Maintain BULLISH, TP S$4.91 (SOTP, 10% holdco discount); estimates unchanged; 90% of SOTP compounding.

• We think UI Boustead REIT offers an attractive entry point to SGX-listed industrial and logistics REITs.
• It pairs a young, ~98%-occupied S$1.9bn Singapore-and-Japan portfolio with strong net property income margins and a forward distribution yield of ~8.1%/8.5% (FY26(E)/FY27(E)) on the current S$0.80 price, backed by a visible Sponsor pipeline and highly specialised, high tech industrial clients.
• With the units trading modestly below pro forma NAV (S$0.85) and below the S$0.88 IPO price, the key detractions are the REIT’s short trading history, heavy reliance on a Sponsor only pipeline, and whether the present high occupancy can translate into distributions that would meet the IPO expectations.

• Investment Holding Company with Diversified Food Interests: Khong Guan is an investment holding company with a primary focus on the trading and distribution of wheat flour, biscuits, and other FMCG products, mainly in Singapore and Malaysia. It operates through subsidiaries and associates, including a significant distribution network in East Malaysia.
• Challenging Financial Performance Despite Stable Revenue: The company has demonstrated stable, albeit slow-growing, revenue. However, profitability has been a significant concern, with negative net income and declining margins over the past three years. A recent rebound in operating and free cash flow offers a potential sign of operational improvements.
• Deep Value Proposition with Significant Risks: The stock trades at a very low price-to-book ratio, suggesting a potential value opportunity. This is balanced by considerable risks, including a long-term decline in market capitalization, sustained losses, high competitive intensity in the FMCG sector, and volatility in commodity input costs.

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• Hai Leck faces a challenging operating environment characterized by a significant and persistent decline in revenue and net income over the past several years. The company’s growth track record shows negative compound annual growth rates across key metrics like revenue, net income, and dividends over 3, 5, and 7-year periods.
• The company operates in the highly cyclical and competitive Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) sector, primarily serving the oil & gas and petrochemical industries. Its performance is heavily tied to the capital expenditure cycles of these industries, which are influenced by volatile global energy prices and demand.
• Despite poor growth, the company exhibits some financial resilience, reflected in a high Smartkarma Resilience score. However, a significant corporate action is underway, with the founder and controlling shareholder proposing to privatize and delist the company, which will fundamentally change the investment thesis for public institutional investors.

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• From Enterprise Colocation to Regional AI Infrastructure: BDx Data Centers is transitioning from a traditional enterprise colocation provider into a hyperscale, AI-ready digital infrastructure platform across the Asia-Pacific region, anchored by the largest secured power commitment held by any operator in Indonesia and by joint ventures with domestic telecommunications partners. The power position matters because grid access, rather than capital or land, has become the binding constraint on development in the market, while the local partnerships provide anchor tenancy and eligibility for regulated workloads closed to operators without a domestic presence.
• Structural Demand Growth Matched by Funded Development Capacity: The core case rests on the company’s ability to capture regional cloud and generative AI adoption at a point when demand is expanding faster than available capacity across South East Asia. Institutional sponsorship provides governance discipline and access to capital, while a recent syndicated facility led by domestic Indonesian banks funds the development pipeline and refinances existing borrowings on improved terms, indicating that lenders with the closest visibility on local risk have repriced it downward.
• Earnings Compression and Rising Leverage Pending Lease-Up: The dominant underwriting risk is the gap between capital deployed and revenue recognised, with pre-tax earnings contracting sharply in the most recent financial year while total liabilities more than doubled. This pattern is characteristic of a platform carrying the depreciation, financing and operating costs of an expanding asset base well before that capacity is commissioned, contracted and billing, and it is compounded by disclosure that measures secured power and design potential rather than let and revenue-generating load. The investment therefore turns on disciplined execution, converting committed investment into sustainable operating leverage.

• Acquisitions Scale Up Market Capability: The S$46 million acquisition of Guthrie Engineering in July 2025 transformed Ever Glory from a niche player into a Tier-1 M&E contractor, expanding its order book to over S$1.0 billion as of July 2026 and granting access to major public works (such as the Alexandra Integrated Hospital redevelopment).
• Working Capital Squeeze Threatens Cash Flow: Although 1HFY2026 revenue surged 200.1% to S$103.2 million and net profit rose 177.5% to S$12.7 million, the rapid backlog execution places substantial strain on the balance sheet due to milestone billings, progress claims, and 5% to 10% retention sums locked up in a high-interest-rate environment.
• Hong Kong Dual Listing as a Vital Capital Lifeline: The proposed dual primary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (SEHK), initiated in July 2026, is not merely an investor relations move. It is a strategic necessity to secure non-debt funding to absorb the working capital demands of their S$1.0 billion backlog and alleviate high gearing on their S$25.1 million acquisition loan.