Asian Pay Television Trust IPO

Asian Pay Television Trust IPO of $1.4 billion is the second largest offering in Singapore so far this year. Priced at 97 cents each, the business trust will have a forecast distribution yield of 7.5% for this year and 8.5% for next year. Appealing. Read more its prospectus here.

Asian Pay Television Trust, an investment vehicle for Taiwan's biggest cable-TV operator, has launched a S$1.4 billion initial public offering in Singapore on Thursday. This IPO is the second largest offering in Singapore so far this year.

According to its final prospectus, Asian Pay Television Trust managed to price its shares at 97 Singapore cents each - slightly above the mid-point of its indicative range.

The business trust has a forecast distribution yield of 7.5 per cent for 2013 and 8.5 per cent for 2014.

Up to 936 million units will be offered under the placement and the public offer, subject to an over-allotment option.

The public offer of 70 million units for retail investors opens on Friday and will close on May 27.

Trading will start on May 29.

From Channel NewsAsia, "Asian Pay Television Trust launches S$1.4b IPO in S'pore".

Asian Pay Television Trust, owner of Taiwan’s third-largest cable television operator, raised S$1.39 billion in an initial public offering (IPO).

The trust, which owns Taiwan Broadband Communications, sold 1.44 billion shares at S$0.97 a unit, according to a prospectus filed with the Monetary Authority of Singapore. At that price, the IPO is projected to offer a yield of 8.51 per cent for next year, the document shows.

The sale is part of Macquarie International Infrastructure Fund’s planned shutdown.

The Singapore-listed fund, which owned 47.5 per cent of Taiwan Broadband, said last month that it was seeking at least 40.8 Singapore cents per share from a sale of the cable operator.

It is the second-biggest offering in Singapore this year after Mapletree Greater China Commercial Trust raised US$1.4 billion (S$1.8 billion) in February, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The shares were offered at a price of as much as S$1 and sold to investors including Neuberger Berman and Quantum Partners, the prospectus shows. Taiwan Broadband, established in 1999, serves more than 750,000 cable TV households with over 150 channels, according to its website.

Macquarie Group and JPMorgan Chase are joint global coordinators for the offering, and DBS Group Holdings and CIMB Group Holdings also helped manage the IPO.

Asian Pay Television is scheduled to start trading on May 29.

The deal will likely further enhance Singapore’s status in the eyes of investors as South-east Asia’s top venue for trust listings.

Data provider Dealogic said Singapore’s IPO volumes reached S$4.8 billion in the first quarter of the year, compared with about S$4.5 billion raised in IPOs for the whole of last year.

From TODAY, "Asian Pay TV raises S$1.39b in S’pore IPO".

Parkour Singapore: SuperflyMonkeyDragons

Cool clip: "Parkour Singapore - Superfly Monkey Dragons".

From Wikipedia on "parkour":

Parkour is a holistic training discipline using movement that developed out of military obstacle course training. Practitioners aim to move quickly and efficiently through their environment using only their bodies and their surroundings to propel themselves, negotiating obstacles in between. They try to maintain as much momentum as possible without being unsafe. Parkour can include running, climbing, swinging, vaulting, jumping, rolling, quadrupedal movement and more, if they are the most suitable movements for the situation.

Check out the official website of Superfly Monkey Dragons (or is it 'SuperflyMonkeyDragons'?) here.

A word of caution, though, this sport may (like other sports) be hazardous. This headline, "Russian 'parkour' girl, 24, falls 17 storeys to her death after building jump goes horribly wrong" may be a timely reminder for all of us.

Singapore to eclipse Switzerland as tax haven by 2020

Today CNN, "Report: Singapore to eclipse Switzerland as tax haven by 2020" has this to say by one Chris Wheeler, a bank analyst with Mediobanca:

"A lot of the benefits of being in Switzerland have fallen away in terms of secrecy, therefore if you look at a convenient market, particularly for a wealthy Asian individual, Singapore fits the bill.

It's got a stable government, transparent legal system, a history of investment management, having English as the first language is really very helpful and therefore it's the obvious place to go to."

UOB in "The Devil's Advocate"???

Well, re-watching "The Devil's Advocate" and just caught a scene where UOB was featured in the background.

But hey, this UOB does not refer to United Overseas Bank, but United Orient Bank.

Still, let's divert & talk about the recent news about United Overseas Bank (UOB). The bank has booked a better-than-expected record S$722 million net profit for Q1 2013 (a 4.9 per cent increase on-year). This proves CIMB wrong as they expect UOB to report 1Q13 net profit of S$662m (down 5% qoq, in line with consensus). Another news also has UOB Indonesia lends Rp45 trillion in Q1 (a 10.6 per cent increase on the corresponding period last year). Also reported that UOB Malaysia targets 10% of market share within 3 years for its credit cards (to date, the bank's market share in the card market was 5%).

United Overseas Bank (UOB) has booked a better-than-expected record S$722 million net profit for Q1 2013, posting a 4.9 per cent increase on-year.

UOB said robust fee and commission income as well as strong loans volume have mitigated the effects of tight interest margins.

Despite the strong start, UOB said it is mindful that overall growth is expected to moderate this year.

Gross customer loans rose 13 per cent on-year to S$167 billion in Q1 2013.

During the quarter, UOB said its net interest income was down 3.5 per cent on-year to S$964 million while net interest margin came in lower at 1.7 per cent as yields declined.

Meanwhile, non-interest income climbed 12.4 per cent on-year to S$708 million.

UOB said the increase in fee income was boosted by higher income from loan-related, fund management, capital market and wealth management businesses. Compared to Q1 2012, fee and commission income rose 25.2 per cent to S$453 million.

Total income for Q1 2013 was 2.7 per cent higher at S$1.67 billion.

From Channel NewsAsia, "UOB posts record net profit in Q1 2013".

Private lender PT Bank UOB Indonesia (“UOBI”) loan growth of Rp 44.75 trillion in Q1, a 10.6 per cent increase on the corresponding period last year.

“UOBI's loan growth has driven an increase in most of the Bank's financial ratios in the first quarter," said UOBI president director Armand Arief.

Among those ratios are the bank’s return on assets ratio at 2.4 percent, return on equity ratio at 14.9 percent and net interest margin ratio at 4.6 percent.

UOBI’s balance sheet shows a net profit of Rp 306 billion, mainly from fee-based income.

“The bank focused on maintaining its liquidity in the first quarter,” said Armand.

The bank has reduced its gross non-performing loans to 1.71 percent, far below Bank Indonesia's maximum limit of 5 percent, while loans-to-deposit ratio was 91.5 percent. UOBI secured an increase of Rp7.7 trillion in third-party funds and a capital adequacy ratio of 17.4 percent (well above the central bank's minimum of 8 per cent) bolstered by strong capitalization reaching Rp8,84 trillion.

From Jakarta Post, "UOB Indonesia lends Rp45 trillion in Q1".

United Overseas Bank (M) Bhd (UOB Malaysia) aims to increase its overall market share of the credit card market to 10% within three years.

UOB Malaysia executive director and head of cards and payment products Sue Wong said to date, the bank's market share in the card market was 5%.

Realising the growing number of affluent women in Malaysia, UOB launched an exclusive credit card on Friday, the UOB Lady's Solitaire Card for women whose annual income is more than RM150,000.

The UOB Lady's Solitaire Card is the third card under its Lady's Cards segment after Lady's Classic Card and Lady's Platinum Card launched in 2003.

"We are targeting at about 50,000 to 100,000 Lady's Solitaire card customers within the next two years," Wong said after the launch of UOB Lady's Solitaire Card.

"Now we have almost 500,000 card holders, of which almost 20% is from our ladies card segment," she added.

From the Star Online, "UOB Malaysia targets 10% of market share for its credit cards".

Big Brother is watching you...

Referring to this Straits Times article, "Hawk-eye cameras to keep close watch on the city, able to zoom in on faces & cars", the phrase "Big Brother is watching you" comes to mind. Heh.

This YouTube clip, "How is Big Brother watching you???" is kind of interesting. Check it out:

The Vanishing Blogger (or 5 reasons why I disappeared in April)

Indeed I did not post a single post in April. Not in this blog nor another blog of mine. I just simply vanished! Or did I, really?

Well, I have reasons--mostly fictional, though--why I stopped blogging in April:
1. I won the jackpot in Resorts World Sentosa and I spent them all away in a trip around the world.

2. I suspected I was somewhat addicted to blogging. Well, Dr. Juliann Mitchell, PhD in his article, "Blogging: Addiction Or Conviction?" did make me wonder whether I could be a blog addict myself. So to take the challenge, I decide to take a hiatus from the blogosphere for a time. For a month. And I did it. Phew.

3. I was too busy hunting for Lee Song Teck, the scumbag of "Gold Guarantee" who disappeared leaving me and many others at loss at what the hell happened to our gold investment. Check out the CAD press release on The Gold Guarantee Pte Ltd here. Also refer to Straits Times, "Ex-investors of Gold Guarantee gather at Hong Lim Park; petition for quicker action".

4. I was inspired (or is it 'misguided'?) by the movie, "Yes Man" and said Yes for the opportunity to take a project in a place without an Internet connection. The name of this country without Internet is omitted lest I would be needed to be back there one day.

5. I enrolled to a 10-day course of Vipassana Meditation, and as I deeply tuned to the principle of 'seeing things as they really are', I realized my 10 days had actually been 30 days!

But hey, now here I am...back to the blogosphere!