With the earnings season in full swing, investors will be closely scrutinising the latest results from both the REIT sector and the blue-chip stocks.
Apart from reviewing earnings, investors should also look out for interesting business developments or announcements.
Some of these may come in the form of acquisitions, partnerships, collaborations or business expansion moves.
Here are four Singapore stocks that reported interesting business developments that you can keep an eye on for November.
ComfortDelGro Corporation Limited (SGX: C52)
ComfortDelGro Corporation, or CDG, is a leading mobility provider with a total fleet size of 40,000 buses, taxis, and rental vehicles.
The group also operates 210 km of rail network that spans 12 countries.
Last week, the land transport giant announced the acquisition of Addison Lee by its wholly-owned subsidiary, CityFleet Networks, for £269.1 million (around S$461.2 million).
This purchase will be funded by external borrowings.
Addison Lee is the largest premium point-to-point operator in the UK.
This purchase will serve as a catalyst for CDG to expand into the attractive premium mobility market and strengthen its point-to-point business network.
Addison Lee brings with it a fleet of 5,000 vehicles along with 7,500 drivers that will be integrated with CityFleet’s network of existing private hire and black taxi fleet within the UK.
Group CEO of CDG, Mr Cheng Siak Kian, believes that this acquisition will enable the group to leverage Addison Lee’s expertise to deepen and scale its premium point-to-point capabilities.
The aim is to also grow CDG’s presence in the UK.
Addison Lee’s fleet has 90% of its vehicles running on cleaner energy, which should also help CDG in accelerating its fleet transition journey.
Parkway Life REIT (SGX: C2PU)
Parkway Life REIT is a healthcare REIT with a portfolio of 64 properties in Singapore, Japan, and Malaysia with total assets under management of S$2.25 billion as of 30 September 2024.
The REIT manager announced a major acquisition earlier this month – that of 11 nursing homes in France from DomusVi Group for €111.2 million.
DomusVi is the third-largest aged care operator in Europe with more than 40 years of track record.
The transaction is structured as a sale-and-leaseback where DomusVi will continue to operate the nursing homes on a 12-year lease term.
With this acquisition, Parkway Life REIT’s portfolio will grow to 75 properties with a total value of approximately S$2.42 billion.
France’s demographics also make this an attractive acquisition.
The country has an ageing population with 22% of its residents being over 65 years old as of 2023.
The aged care market is also highly regulated with no new supply coming in until 2028, subject to government approval.
This should keep demand strong and allow the REIT to enjoy healthy organic rental growth.
Distribution per unit (DPU) is also set to rise following this acquisition, with the first half of 2024’s DPU set to increase by 1.8% from S$0.0754 to S$0.0768.
Sheffield Green (SGX: SGR)
Sheffield Green is a human resources (HR) provider for the renewable energy industry and provides HR services for the engineering, procurement, construction, and installation (EPCI) works covering wind, offshore wind, solar, and green hydrogen industries.
Last week, the group opened its first offshore wind training centre in Chiayi County in Taiwan.
This facility will ensure that professionals are equipped with skills to meet the highest international standards and is part of Sheffield Green’s broader expansion plans into the Asia-Pacific region.
Taiwan’s offshore wind industry, which is expected to reach an installed capacity of 5.7 GW by 2025, should see growing demand for skilled labour.
The country intends to generate 20% of its electricity from renewable sources by next year and will attract roughly US$33 billion in investments and create 20,000 new jobs.
This training centre will open up a new revenue stream for the group and reinforce its position as a one-stop solutions provider in the offshore wind sector.
Meanwhile, Sheffield Green also signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Grupo Stier XXI S.L.U to explore the potential acquisition of the seller’s training centre business in Spain.
If this transaction goes ahead, it will allow the group to establish a training presence in Europe.
Sembcorp Industries Ltd (SGX: U96)
Sembcorp Industries Ltd, or SCI, is a leading energy and urban solutions provider.
The blue-chip group has a balanced energy portfolio of 21.4 GW which comprises 14.6 GW of gross renewable energy capacity along with urban development projects spanning more than 14,000 hectares.
SCI announced several promising business developments in the past two weeks.
The group’s wholly-owned subsidiary received a letter of award for a 150 MW Inter State Transmission System connected wind-solar hybrid power project from the Solar Energy Corporation of India Ltd (SECI).
This build-own-operate (BOO) project is part of a 600 MW bid issued by the vendor.
SCI is waiting to execute the power purchase agreement and once the project is completed, the energy will be sold to SECI for 25 years.
This project will be funded via a mix of internal funds and debt and will increase SCI’s gross renewables capacity globally to 14.6 GW.
A few days after this announcement, SCI signed a joint development programme with PT PLN Energi Primer Indonesia for a green hydrogen facility in Sumatra.
This facility should be capable of producing 100,000 metric tonnes per annum of green hydrogen and is poised to become Southeast Asia’s largest green hydrogen initiative.
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Disclosure: Royston Yang does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned.
