Singapore's CapitaLand in $8 billion deal creating Asia property giant

SINGAPORE -- CapitaLand said Monday it has agreed to buy two real estate holding firms in a Sg$11 billion ($8.1 billion) deal that will create Asia's biggest property group with assets in dozens of countries.

Under the agreement, CapitaLand will acquire two units from a subsidiary of state investment firm Temasek.

If approved, the new entity will have assets under management of more than Sg$116 billion, including businesses, industrial parks, hotels, commercial, retail and residential properties in over 30 countries.

The agreement is subject to approval by CapitaLand's independent shareholders at a meeting in the first half of this year, the group said in a statement.

The company is buying the real estate units from Temasek subsidiary Ascendas-Singbridge Group, which develops towns, industrial parks, offices, hotels and warehouses across the world.

The deal comes as new CapitaLand president and group chief executive Lee Chee Koon, who took over in September, seeks to steer the company deeper into new markets.

"Geographically, the deal strengthens CapitaLand's presence in our core markets of Singapore and China, while adding meaningful scale in India, US and Europe," he said.

Payment to Temasek will be in cash and stocks.

Founded in 1974, Temasek is one of Singapore's two main investment vehicles. It had a global portfolio worth Sg$308 billion as of March 31, 2018.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Google confirms investment in Indonesian ride-hailing firm Go-Jek

SINGAPORE - Google has made its first ride-hailing investment in Asia by pumping money into Go-Jek, as the Indonesian start-up and deep-pocketed rivals rapidly expand their app-based services and digital payments in Southeast Asia.

The funding deepens Google's commitment to Indonesia's internet economy," Caesar Sengupta, a vice president at Google said in a company blog on Monday.

The announcement by Alphabet Inc's Google comes two weeks after sources told Reuters that Google and Singapore state investor Temasek were among those investing in Go-Jek as part of a $1.2 billion fundraising round.

Rivals Grab and Uber are backed by Japan's SoftBank Group, while Go-Jek has secured investments from Chinese technology giants Tencent Holdings Ltd and JD.com Inc.

Google's blog did not specify how much Google is investing but two sources had told Reuters that Google was investing about $100 million.

Ride hailing firms are investing tens of millions of dollars to expand their digital payment systems and are also seeking to allow their users to pay for third-party services.

With more than 133 million people online, Indonesia is home to the fifth largest population of internet users in the world but half of the country's population has yet to connect to the internet, Google's Sengupta said.

Both Grab and Uber are expanding in Go-Jek's home market, which is Southeast Asia's most populous country and where locals are keen to lap up an array of mobile-based services. Southeast Asia is the world's third-biggest ride-hailing market after China and the United States.

Go-Jek, a play on the local word for motorbike taxis, delivers everything from meals and groceries to cleaners, masseuses and hairdressers across Indonesia's capital city Jakarta, all at the touch of a smartphone app.

The company, which began as a ride-hailing app for motorcycle taxis, was set up by Nadiem Makarim, a graduate of the Harvard School of Business and a former associate with McKinsey, who has quickly become a poster child for start-up success in Indonesia.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Lazada to double SE Asia warehouses amid e-commerce boom

SINGAPORE - Lazada, the Southeast Asia-focused online retailer founded by Germany's Rocket Internet, plans to double the number of warehouses in the region over the next few years to keep up with a surge in e-commerce from customers outside big cities.

Lazada, which currently has 10 warehouses, expects to add up to three warehouses over the next year, and expects to further increase that to a total of 20 in the next three to four years, CEO Maximilian Bittner told Reuters.

The Singapore-headquartered firm counts state investor Temasek among its investors.

"The demand is growing faster in the smaller cities than the capital cities," Bittner said. "You have a growing middle class (in the smaller cities), who has disposable income and they want to spend their money."

Online sales account for less than 1 percent of all retail in most markets in Southeast Asia, but is growing rapidly as the middle class expands and Internet-enabled mobile phones become more widespread.

Consultant AT Kearney estimates online shopping could grow an average 25 percent annually in the region over the next few years.

Lazada operates in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam and has no immediate plans to expand beyond those countries, Bittner said.

The e-tailer, however, was keeping an eye on emerging markets like Bangladesh, Cambodia and Laos, he added.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com