Singapore

Lucror Analytics Morning Views comprise our fundamental credit analysis, opinions and trade recommendations on high yield issuers in the region, based on key company-specific developments in the past 24 hours. Our Morning Views include a section with a brief market commentary, key market indicators and a macroeconomic and corporate event calendar.

• Yanlord Land

• In terms of net fund flows over the month, retail investors net bought S$8.2 million of S-Reits while institutional investors net sold S$86.4 million in the sector.
• However, there were 10 S-Reits and property trusts which recorded net institutional inflows in the month of July.
• They were Keppel DC Reit, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust (CICT), CapitaLand India Trust (Clint), ESR-Logos Reit, Far East Hospitality Trust, Digital Core Reit, Paragon Reit, Sasseur Reit, First Reit, and BHG Retail Reit.

• Share buybacks by primary listed companies 28 Jul – 3 Aug 2023 Stocks that booked the highest net institutional outflow over the five sessions included Singapore Airlines, Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust, Genting Singapore, Jardine Matheson, CapitaLand Investment, Venture Corporation, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust, Suntec Reit and Sheng Siong Group.
• There were four primary-listed companies conducting share buybacks over the five trading sessions through to Aug 3 with a total consideration of S$11.4 million.

• Singapore-headquartered climate-tech startup Zuno Carbon has secured US$2.5 million in seed funding led by Wavemaker Partners. SEEDS Capital and Blue InCube Ventures also participated.
• This brings the total funds raised by Zuno Carbon in the past 12 months to over US$3 million and follows a pre-seed round in June last year.
• The money will be used to ramp up Zuno Carbon’s sales and marketing efforts, launch new features to simplify compliance and catalyse decarbonisation with real, tangible actions.

• Singapore-headquartered RNA technology company, Mirxes Holding, has completed its Series D funding round, securing US$50 million.
• The round is anchored by existing and new investors, including Beijing Fupu, EDBI, Mitsui & Co., NHH Venture Fund, and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research.
• Mirxes Holding will use the capital to scale the adoption and penetration of its stomach cancer blood test, GASTROClear, in major Asia-Pacific markets, including Southeast Asia, China, and Japan.

• CapitaLand Ascott Trust (CLAS SP) is looking to raise around S$200m from its primary follow-on. Included in the deal is another S$100m preferential offering to existing shareholders.
• Proceeds will be used towards acquiring three new properties, and for asset enhancement initiatives.
• The deal would be a relatively large one for the REIT to digest, at 31.6 days of three month ADV.

• Singapore-based startup Bunker, which provides a modern financial analytics platform for SMEs, has secured over US$5 million over two funding rounds.
• The investors include January Capital, Alpha JWC, GFC, Northstar Group, Money Forward, Alpine Ventures, and Patamar Capital.
• Angel investors, namely Chris Lin, Rosemary DeAaragon, Tiger Fang, Gaurav Gupta, Christian Sutardi, Warren Tseng, Jonathan Wong, Nakul Malhotra, and Shaun Hon, also participated.

• kopi-C with Uni-Asia Group’s CFO: “Being small sets us apart” Uni-Asia Group Chief Financial Officer Lim Kai Ching explains how staying small and diversified has allowed the company to find a niche in shipping vessels and property investments.
• This is the belief of Mr.
• Lim Kai Ching, Group Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Uni-Asia Group, an alternative investment company that has forged its specialty in niche assets within the property and shipping markets.

• Sheng Siong (SSG SP) reported another resilient quarter with revenue growth at 4.7% YoY and profit growth flat, with annualized ROCEs at 27%. 
• Net cash grew to 289 mn SGD (highest ever now at 12% of market capitalization). The company is expected to expand by 3-4 stores in FY23 for Singapore.
• While the stock is not cheap at 19x/18x FY23e/FY24e and 3.8% dividend yield, we see prospects for margin expansion in further quarters as execution remains high quality.

• PingSafe, a Singapore-based cybersecurity firm, has raised US$3.3 million in a seed funding round led by Surge, the scale-up program of Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India & SEA). The round also saw participation from Tanglin Ventures and several angel investors.
• The company will use the fresh funds to expand its business across Southeast Asia and North America.
• Founded in 2022 by CEO Anand Prakash and CTO Nishant Mittal, PingSafe provides a cloud security platform that protects companies’ data and apps from cyber attacks.

XP Power reported year-on-year revenue growth of 30% in H123 as it made good progress shipping from its elevated backlog. As expected, orders declined year-on-year, but the c £250m backlog still provides at least nine months’ revenue visibility. The company continues to invest for the longer term in Malaysia (manufacturing) and the United States (R&D). With no change to management’s full year expectations, we maintain our normalised operating profit forecasts for FY23 and FY24 and nudge up our interest cost forecast for FY23.

• 5 S-Reits with year-on-year improvements in H1 2023 DPU Among them, 10 S-Reits reported higher year-on-year (yoy) net property income (NPI) for the half-year period ended Jun 30, 2023.
• CDL Hospitality Trusts’ H1 2023 NPI increased by 23.3 per cent yoy, largely attributed to Singapore, Japan, Australia, Europe and UK markets.

• We expect Shopee’s competitive landscape deteriorated in 2Q23, due to increased pressure from TikTok/Lazada in ASEAN, Coupang in Taiwan, and Shein in Brazil. Temu is a large swing factor.
• Shopee has been pushing live streaming and its full-management (or consignment) mode. In our view, these will drag down its profit margins and may not be effective in gaining share.
• We estimate 2Q23 revenue and non-GAAP net income are 2.5% and (24%) vs cons. We have revised down Shopee’s growth expectations for the next 3 years.

• Grab recently announced the acquisition of Trans-cab in Singapore, the 3rd largest taxi operator there. This will help to solve driver shortage issues and improve cost efficiencies.
• Taxis pay the lowest COE prices plus Grab can improve the productivity of taxi drivers through access to the Grab app. Trans-cab gives Grab access to street hailing. 
• Grab‘s Singapore digital bank recently raised new capital but has also seen its deposit cap lifted significantly, which is helping to significantly boost deposit growth.

• NEU Battery Materials, a Singapore-based lithium-ion battery recycling startup, has secured US$3.7 million in an oversubscribed seed funding round led by SGInnovate.
• ComfortDelGro Ventures, Shift4Good, Paragon Ventures I, and other angel investors also joined.
• These funds will accelerate the deployment of NEU Battery Materials’s automated recycling line, which will lower operational manpower requirements.

• NodeFlair, a Singapore-based career advancement platform for tech talents, announced today that it has raised US$2 million Series A funding.
• The funding round was led by Iterative with participation from 500 Global and PERSOL VENTURE PARTNERS, the corporate venture capital arm of HR management group PERSOL.
• Prominent angel investors Quek Siu Rui (CEO & Co-founder of Carousell), JJ Chai (CEO & Co-founder of Rainforest), and Siew Kum Hong (Former COO of AirBnB China) also participated in the funding round.