Industry News

DBS, OCBC, and UOB have joined forces to support a landmark S$5b sustainability-linked loan for the acquisition of ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC) by KKR and Singtel. This financing highlights the banks’ confidence in the growth potential of digital infrastructure, driven by increasing global demand for cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), and data storage.

The loan, which involves DBS, OCBC, and UOB as Mandated Lead Arrangers, Bookrunners, and Sustainability-Linked Loan Coordinators, incorporates sustainability performance indicators. These include increasing renewable energy usage and expanding green data centres, aligning with STT GDC’s environmental goals.

STT GDC, headquartered in Singapore, is a rapidly growing data centre operator with a presence in 20 major markets across Asia Pacific, the UK, and Europe. The company is positioned to meet the rising demand for AI and cloud computing services.

Amit Sinha from DBS noted the importance of balancing infrastructure expansion with sustainability, stating, “The sustainability-linked structure aligns the growth of critical digital infrastructure with the transition to a lower-carbon digital economy.” Elaine Lam from OCBC emphasised the transaction’s role in advancing STT GDC’s global expansion and sustainability goals. Edmund Leong from UOB highlighted the critical role of data centres in Asia’s digital economy and the potential of sustainable financing to support economic and environmental objectives.

This collaboration underscores the banks’ commitment to fostering sustainable growth in the digital infrastructure sector, with implications for future developments in the region’s digital economy.

Singapore has announced an increase in land betterment charge (LBC) rates for the period from September 2026 to February 2027, affecting several use groups including commercial, residential (both landed and non-landed), industrial, and civic institutions. Mark Yip, CEO of Huttons Asia, attributed the higher rates to growing confidence and demand for properties in Singapore, a major global financial hub.

The LBC for non-landed residential properties (Use Group B2) saw an average increase of 3.4%, marking the fourth consecutive rise. This increase, however, is at a slower pace compared to the previous six months. Notably, 70 out of 118 sectors experienced increases ranging from 0.9% to 29.1%. The landed residential sector (Use Group B1) also saw a 3.5% increase, with 108 sectors reporting rises between 1.8% and 7.9%.

Developers have shown keen interest in government land sales (GLS) sites, ensuring business continuity for the next three years. Sites such as Berlayar Drive, Dover Drive, and River Valley Green have seen higher bids. Meanwhile, Loyang Valley was the only successful collective sale site.

Yip noted that landed home prices have surged over 3.5% in the past six months due to limited land supply and increased wealth in the market. High-value transactions in areas like Nassim Road and Cluny Hill have contributed to this trend.

Looking ahead, potential interest rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve could raise development costs. Recent policy changes in the Housing Development Board (HDB) and private residential markets may also influence market activities. The lifting of the 15-month wait-out period could lead to wealth redistribution from private property owners to the HDB resale market, whilst changes in income ceilings for Build-To-Order (BTO) and Executive Condominium (EC) buyers may adjust demand. Despite these changes, Yip believes that realistic pricing and location remain crucial for successful collective sales.

The Singapore Judiciary, led by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, participated in significant ASEAN legal meetings in Bangkok from 21 to 23 July 2026. These included the 15th ASEAN Law Association General Assembly, the 47th Governing Council Meeting, and the 13th Council of ASEAN Chief Justices Meeting. The gatherings aimed to strengthen judicial and legal cooperation across ASEAN nations.

Justice Lee Seiu Kin presented findings from the Crossroads 20 Working Group, highlighting priority areas such as commercial law harmonisation, cross-border insolvency, and the digital economy. Meanwhile, Justice S Mohan updated on the Virtual Training Marketplace, a portal connecting young lawyers with cross-border training opportunities, which has facilitated its first successful placement.

Key developments from the meetings included the publication of the Memorandum of Guidance on Money Judgments Enforcement and a Simplified Protocol for Court Order Authentication within ASEAN. Additionally, a Roadmap was adopted to promote Therapeutic Justice practices, and efforts to revise the AI Governance Framework for ASEAN Judiciaries continued.

The Singapore Judiciary’s involvement underscores its commitment to advancing ASEAN’s judicial cooperation and developing future-ready justice systems. The meetings also featured discussions on cross-border insolvency and intellectual property rights enforcement, with Singapore judges contributing significantly to these dialogues. The ASEAN Law Conference further explored judicial responses to generative AI in court submissions, reflecting the region’s focus on emerging legal challenges.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has announced a significant investment of S$220m over the next three years to bolster the country’s FinTech sector. This initiative, known as the Financial Sector Technology and Innovation Scheme 4.0 (FSTI 4.0), aims to accelerate the adoption of frontier technologies, develop tech infrastructure, and support talent development within the industry.

FSTI 4.0 is structured around four primary goals: anchoring innovation activities in Singapore, accelerating the development and deployment of financial technologies, enhancing technology infrastructure, and fostering talent development. The scheme will be implemented through six tracks, including manpower development, institutional projects, AI adoption, infrastructure and platforms, centres of excellence, and FinTech awards.

The manpower track will co-fund internship stipends, aiming to support at least 1,000 FinTech internship opportunities over the next three years. The institution project track will focus on developing innovative solutions using technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Distributed Ledger Technology. Meanwhile, the AI Pathfinder track will facilitate the adoption of AI solutions, fostering collaboration between financial institutions and AI providers.

MAS Deputy Director Jacqueline Ong highlighted the importance of these initiatives, stating that they will “strengthen Singapore’s position as a vibrant and competitive FinTech hub.” The scheme builds on previous iterations, which have collectively supported over 350 projects and established more than 30 Centres of Excellence.

As Singapore continues to position itself as a global leader in FinTech, FSTI 4.0 is expected to play a crucial role in driving innovation and maintaining the nation’s competitive edge in the financial sector.

Sheffield Green Ltd., a prominent human resource services provider for the renewable energy sector, has announced a significant financial upturn for the fiscal year ending 30 June 2026. The company reported a 19.9% year-on-year increase in revenue, reaching $23.18m, alongside a 51.3% rise in net profit to $1.47m.

The company’s gross profit also saw a notable increase of 24.9%, amounting to $6.77m, with the gross profit margin expanding to 29.2%. A key highlight of the financial year was the growth of Sheffield Green’s training segment, now operating under the name Trainergy, which accounted for 7.3% of the group’s revenue, a significant rise from 1.1% in the previous year.

Chief Executive Officer Kee Boo Chye remarked, “FY2026 was the year in which our diversification strategy began to show through in the numbers. Revenue grew close to 20 per cent, and our training business went from around one per cent of Group revenue to more than seven per cent.” He further highlighted the strategic consolidation of training centres under Trainergy and a promising agreement with Vestas in Taiwan.

The company ended the year in a strong financial position, with net cash of $5.97m and all borrowings fully repaid. A final dividend of 0.30 Singapore cents per ordinary share has been recommended, bringing the total FY2026 dividends to 0.50 Singapore cents per share.

Looking ahead, Sheffield Green aims to address the industry’s skilled technician shortage, which is projected to reach hundreds of thousands over the next five years, by continuing to invest in its training capabilities.

Bank Indonesia (BI) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) have operationalised a new framework to settle bilateral trade transactions in local currencies. Announced on 31 August 2026, this Local Currency Transaction (LCT) Framework follows a Memorandum of Understanding signed in August 2022 and the agreement on operational guidelines in April 2026.

The LCT Framework is designed to support bilateral trade and enhance ASEAN financial integration by promoting the use of local currencies in intra-ASEAN transactions. Appointed Cross Currency Dealers (ACCDs) will facilitate the settlement of current account transactions, direct investments, and cross-border payments in Indonesian Rupiah and Singapore Dollar. This initiative is expected to provide businesses with greater flexibility and reduce exchange rate risks and costs.

Key features of the framework include direct quotations between the Indonesian Rupiah and Singapore Dollar and the implementation of rules to enhance local currency usage. The appointed ACCD banks in Indonesia include PT Bank Central Asia Tbk, PT Bank CIMB Niaga Tbk, and PT Bank DBS Indonesia, among others. In Singapore, the appointed banks are DBS Bank Ltd., Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited, and United Overseas Bank Limited.

The operationalisation of this framework marks a significant step towards strengthening economic ties between Indonesia and Singapore, potentially paving the way for similar initiatives within the ASEAN region.

Aolani, a Singapore-founded neocloud company, has launched the Aolani Token Factory, a managed inference platform enabling organisations to deploy AI models on a pay-per-token basis. This innovative service allows companies to scale AI operations without the need to manage GPU infrastructure, marking Aolani as the first Singapore-founded neocloud to offer such a service at scale.

The Aolani Token Factory addresses the growing demand for production-grade inference infrastructure as global AI companies expand in Singapore. It provides AI-native companies with a compliant and high-performance path from experimentation to production-scale deployment. Customers can purchase credits and pay based on token consumption, avoiding capital-intensive GPU investments. The platform manages the entire inference stack, including GPU capacity, model serving, and workload optimisation.

Supporting leading open-source models like DeepSeek, GLM, Kimi, and Qwen, the platform also allows customers to deploy their own models through OpenAI-compatible APIs. Enterprise customers benefit from dedicated capacity and data isolation options to meet compliance and data residency requirements.

The platform supports three core use cases: AI agents for workflow automation, enterprise AI applications, and coding agents for code generation and testing. Sea Xu, Applied AI Research Lead at Aolani, emphasised the platform’s adaptability and rapid deployment capabilities, ensuring that infrastructure keeps pace with Southeast Asia’s evolving AI ecosystem.

Nicholas Chia, CEO of Aolani, highlighted the platform’s competitive pricing and managed stack, enabling companies to move from model selection to production without the complexities of self-managed infrastructure. This launch represents a significant milestone for Aolani and its customers, fundamentally changing access to AI compute.

Gojek Singapore and Zig by ComfortDelGro have announced an expanded partnership, allowing commuters to book metred taxis through the Gojek app. This collaboration, revealed on 31 August 2026, enables GoTaxi bookings to be fulfilled by Zig’s extensive taxi network, the largest in Singapore, promising shorter wait times for passengers and increased booking opportunities for drivers.

The partnership builds on an existing arrangement where selected GoCar requests are already serviced by Zig taxis. Janine Teo, General Manager of Gojek Singapore, noted the strong demand for app-based taxi bookings with metre-based fares. “By expanding our partnership with Zig, we are giving users access to Singapore’s largest and fastest-matching licensed taxi network and enhancing the overall booking experience for commuters,” she stated.

Yee Hon Wai, Head of Rental at Zig, highlighted the benefits for drivers, saying, “This expanded partnership creates more opportunities for our taxi drivers to secure bookings, helping to support sustainable earnings whilst continuing to meet commuter preferences.”

For passengers, the booking process remains straightforward, with rides charged according to the taxi metre and standard platform fees applying. This development underscores the companies’ commitment to providing reliable and flexible ride-booking options tailored to diverse customer needs.

Tiong Woon Corporation Holding Ltd, a mainboard-listed heavy lift specialist, has reported a 24% increase in net profit attributable to equity holders, reaching S$23.9m for the financial year ending 30 June 2026. The company also saw a 15% rise in revenue, totalling S$187.7m, driven by strong demand for its integrated heavy lift and haulage solutions in Singapore and key regional markets.

Earnings per share for Tiong Woon Corporation increased from 8.29 cents to 10.31 cents, whilst the net asset value per share strengthened from S$1.39 to S$1.47. The company ended the year with a robust cash balance of S$86.6m, which it plans to use for growth and future expansion. A final dividend of 2.50 cents per share has been proposed, marking a 43% increase.

Michael Ang Guan Hwa, Executive Director and CEO of Tiong Woon Corporation, stated, “FY2026 was a year of disciplined execution. Demand for our integrated heavy lift and haulage solutions remained firm in Singapore and our key regional markets, and continued investment in fleet renewal supported our growth and operational efficiency.”

Looking ahead, the company aims to strengthen its core capabilities and deepen its presence in regional markets. It also plans to explore opportunities in emerging sectors such as data centres and biopharmaceuticals, whilst maintaining a resilient balance sheet and delivering sustainable returns to shareholders. The board remains confident in the group’s prospects, supported by a reduced net gearing of 9.5%.

Singapore’s manufacturing sector experienced a notable increase in output for July 2026, with a year-on-year growth of 6.8%, according to the latest data. When excluding the biomedical manufacturing sector, the growth rate was even higher at 8%. On a month-on-month basis, the manufacturing output rose by 2.3%, with a 0.8% increase when excluding biomedical manufacturing.

All manufacturing clusters, except for biomedical and chemicals, recorded growth. The precision engineering cluster led the charge with a 17.7% increase, driven by higher production in semiconductor equipment and optical instruments. The electronics sector followed with an 11.2% rise, bolstered by demand in the infocomms, consumer electronics, and semiconductors segments.

Transport engineering saw a 10.8% growth, supported by increased production in the aerospace sector, although partially offset by a decline in marine and offshore engineering. General manufacturing industries grew by 4.9%, with the food, beverages, and tobacco segment contributing significantly.

Conversely, the biomedical manufacturing sector declined by 5.3%, affected by reduced export orders for medical devices and changes in pharmaceutical production. The chemicals sector also faced a 10.6% decline due to plant maintenance and supply disruptions, despite some growth in perfumes and fragrances production.

The Singapore Economic Development Board will release the next monthly manufacturing performance update on 28 September 2026.