Singtel jumps 3.6% on S$0.10 per share dividend, S$2 billion share buyback plan
As at 11.21 am, the counter climbed to S$3.99, 3.6 per cent or S$0.14 higher than its Wednesday closing price of S$3.85, with 30.1 million shares changing hands, ShareInvestor data showed. This is the highest price Singtel shares have risen to in more than five years – the last time this happened was in 2017.
By 1.24 pm, the counter had eased back down to S$3.96, still up by 2.9 per cent or S$0.11, with 35.3 million shares transacted.
On Thursday, Singtel returned to the black with S$2.8 billion net profit for its second half ended March. The telco proposed a final dividend of S$0.10 per share.
It also disclosed plans to repurchase S$2 billion worth of shares in the open market as part of its capital management strategy; this maiden share buyback programme will be executed over three years, until FY2028.
Repurchased shares will be cancelled, and funding for the programme will be underpinned by excess capital from Singtel's asset-recycling proceeds.
Under its Singtel28 growth plan, the company is raising to S$9 billion its mid-term asset-recycling target that it set at S$6 billion in May 2024.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Times
2 days ago
- Business Times
Stocks to watch: Singtel, Sinarmas Land, Cordlife, Q&M Dental Group, Grand Venture Tech, PSC, Procurri Corp
[SINGAPORE] The following companies saw new developments that may affect trading of their securities on Friday (Jul 11): Singtel : The local telecommunications giant's technology services arm, NCS, will invest S$130 million over the next three years to further its artificial intelligence (AI) development across the Asia-Pacific region. Its investments include the development of an AI suite, six major technological partnerships and developing an AI-enabled workforce. NCS currently has over 1,000 professionals certified across major cloud platforms including AWS, Google, Microsoft and Nvidia. Shares in Singtel closed 1.3 per cent or S$0.05 higher at S$4.01 on Thursday, before the news. Sinarmas Land: The property developer said on Friday that the offeror aiming to privatise it has exercised its right to compulsorily acquire all shares of shareholders who have not accepted the offer. Following this, the Widjaja family-controlled Lyon Investments will own all Sinarmas Land shares and will delist the company from the mainboard of the Singapore Exchange at a date and time to be announced. The counter has been suspended from trading since Jun 3, 2025, after the privatisation offer closed with Lyon Investments' shareholding standing at a 98.65 per cent. Cordlife : The private cord-blood bank said in bourse filing on Thursday that it will offer enhanced support to its customers who were affected by the November 2023 discovery of its damaged storage tanks. This includes a five-year extension to their cord-blood storage – until their children turn 26 years old – at no additional cost. The extension begins when the customer's existing contract expires. Its shares closed at S$0.005 or 1.9 per cent lower at S$0.26, before the announcement. Q&M Dental Group : The company on Thursday issued S$130 million worth of notes priced at 3.95 per cent under its S$500 million multicurrency debt issuance programme. The group said it has received in-principle approval from the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading for the listing and quotation of the notes, which are due in 2028 and will list on the bourse on Friday. The counter ended on Thursday unchanged at S$0.43. Grand Venture Technology: The precision engineering solutions company is moving to be privatised by Aalberts Advanced Mechatronics at S$0.94 a share, it said on Thursday. The Netherlands-incorporated firm is proposing to acquire all ordinary shares in Grand Venture's issued and paid-up share capital, which totals some 339.3 million shares worth S$318.9 million. Shareholders who collectively hold 64.24 per cent of Grand Venture's total shares have given the offeror irrevocable undertakings to vote in favour of the scheme. Shares of Grand Venture closed on Wednesday at S$0.955, up by 1.1 per cent or S$0.01, before the company called for a trading halt on Thursday morning. PSC Corporation : A mandatory offer by local tycoon Sam Goi has been made on Thursday to buy the remaining shares that he does not already own of fast-moving consumer goods wholesaler PSC at S$0.40 apiece. This comes after he spent S$25.2 million on 63 million shares to raise his stake to 43.38 per cent. The offer represents a premium of 7.8 per cent over the volume weighted average price of S$0.371 in the past one-month period, according to a bourse filing by UOB Kay Hian on his behalf. The counter fell S$0.01, or 2.4 per cent, to close at S$0.40, before the announcement. Procurri Corp : The IT solutions provider on Thursday said it received in-principle approval from the Singapore Exchange for its proposed delisting. This comes as its parent company Exeo Global Asset Holdings on Apr 28 proposed to acquire all shares in its issued share capital at S$0.32 apiece. The counter finished on Thursday flat at S$0.31.
Independent Singapore
3 days ago
- Independent Singapore
Temasek Holdings posts S$434 billion portfolio, eyes AI & sustainability
Hello Gregory, please see highlighted query in 3rd paragraph. SINGAPORE: Singapore's state fund Temasek Holdings reported a record net portfolio value of S$434 billion and gains of S$45 billion at the end of its financial year. Its assets under management (AUM) grew from US$288 billion in 2024 to US$324 billion in 2025. When unlisted assets are marked to market, the total AUM grows to S$469 billion (US$346.45 billion). Mark-to-market accounting values assets at their current market prices rather than their book value or original cost. FY2025 saw Temasek invest S$52 billion while divesting S$33 billion. The one-year total shareholder return reached 11.8%, a notable increase from the previous year's 1.6% (CORRECT?), driven by the strong performance of Singapore-based companies and returns from the US, China and India. Total shareholder return (TSR) over 20 years remained at 7% while the 10-year TSR came in at 5%, down from 6% last year. Temasek's portfolio is divided between Singapore-based companies (41%), global direct investments (36%) and partnerships and asset management firms (23%). Investments in global direct investments are stakes in established or emerging market leaders aligned with structural trends of digitalisation, sustainable living, future consumption and longevity. See also Ho Ching shares story of 3-yr-old with a rare genetic condition Its Singapore portfolio includes stakes in major companies like Singtel, Singapore Airlines and DBS. The city-state remains Temasek's biggest market, accounting for just over a quarter of underlying assets in FY 2025. In fact, 52% of Temasek's portfolio companies are also headquartered in Singapore. Temasek's deputy chief executive Chia Song Hwee noted that the firm's Singapore-based portfolio companies saw strong performance. He commented: 'It affirms our ongoing active engagements with them to strengthen their business foundations, pivot and de-risk where necessary, and drive value creation. 'We have been sharpening our investment discipline through more active portfolio management and will maintain this rigorous approach to enhance our returns over the long term,' he added While strongly focused on Asia, 66% of its investments are in developed economies. Its investments are distributed as follows: Singapore (27%), the Americas (24%), China (18%), Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (12%), and India (8%). Sustainability-themed investments account for 31% of its portfolio, an increase from 12% in 2024. See also Bumboat catches fire in Marina Bay Temasek also continues to explore new sectors, particularly artificial intelligence (AI) and infrastructure. This comes with a focus on 'fundamentally strong, market-leading businesses'. Mapletree Investments' European push Temasek-backed Mapletree Investments is also aggressively expanding, making a push into data centres, logistics, and student housing. These are three of its four core sectors, the fourth being offices. The firm's emphasis on data centres is notable, and it plans to enter Europe's growing market. Projections show a 43% increase in data centre capacity, reaching 937 megawatts by 2025. This is fuelled by rising demand for computing power and infrastructure for artificial intelligence. 'Investor appetite in this asset class will remain strong,' said Hiew Yoon Khong, Mapletree's group chief executive. He highlights the strategic importance of emerging markets such as Milan, Madrid, Japan, and Korea. The logistics sector plays a vital role in Temasek's strategy. It accounts for 42% of total assets managed by Mapletree, valued at S$33.7 billion. Mapletree is actively increasing its footprint, planning a major logistics development in New Jersey and continuing land acquisitions in the United States. Student housing is another sector where Mapletree plans to grow, with plans for exploring new markets that include Spain and Australia, which suffer from low supply and growing demand. It also plans to establish a fund focused on student housing, targeting at least £500 million in UK assets.
Business Times
3 days ago
- Business Times
Singtel's NCS to invest S$130 million to scale AI adoption in Apac
[SINGAPORE] Singtel's technology services arm, NCS, will invest S$130 million over the next three years to further its artificial intelligence (AI) development across the Asia-Pacific region. Its investments include the development of an AI suite, six major technological partnerships and developing an AI-enabled workforce. NCS chief executive officer Ng Kuo Pin said in a press statement on Thursday (Jul 10) that the investments and blueprints will better enable NCS' staff and clients to 'create new business outcomes and build a resilient, innovative future with AI'. AI application NCS' AI suite, was officially launched at the company's flagship Impact Forum on Thursday, which was attended by more than 1,200 people. 'From assessment to design to implementation, the NCS Sunshine suite of tools is tailored for developers, IT operations teams and corporate users,' said NCS. It consists of three components: an AI coding assistant, an AI operation platform and a productivity tool. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up The coding assistant, which is for developers, will support language conversion, test generation and code analysis. The operations platform is designed to automate incident triage, system log analysis and operational task flows. The productivity tool will 'enhance day-to-day tasks', including summarisation, content retrieval and secure document handling, added NCS. The company also announced a five-year master agreement with Home Team Science and Technology Agency (HTX) during the forum. NCS said that it will collaborate with HTX to implement next-generation technologies, including AI, data, robotics and quantum-safe solutions across the Home Team's agency. 'The collaboration aims to improve public safety, enhance operational productivity of officers and strengthen the long-term resilience of Singapore's homeland capabilities,' NCS added. Technological partnerships Speaking at the event held at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong said that NCS will raise its capabilities in AI by deepening its partnerships with technology providers, such as Google Cloud, AWS and Nvidia. The other three companies partnering NCS are Databricks, Dell Technologies and Sunline. Each partnership will tap different applications of AI, such as the implementation of agentic and generative AI and accelerating digital transformation. NCS said that the partnerships demonstrate how collaboration amplifies innovation across fragmented AI landscapes. DPM Gan said: 'Through system integrators such as NCS, companies can deploy AI more efficiently and more effectively, and in time to come, develop the capabilities to scale their own AI solutions.' In March, NCS expanded into the Philippines through a joint venture with Globe Telecom. It said that this will add 1,200 technology professionals to its workforce. 'They will complement the existing 13,000-strong NCS workforce across Singapore, Australia, Greater China, India and South-east Asia, enabling NCS to better serve its clients,' said the company. Empowering the workforce NCS acknowledged that the advancement of AI may lead to a rise in public concern regarding job displacement and loss of control. 'Yet this presents an opportunity to design AI that augments human capability rather than replacing it, keeping humans in the centre,' it said. DPM Gan noted that NCS has been investing in developing the AI capabilities of its workforce, and has now trained more than 10,000 of its employees globally to be 'AI-enabled'. 'This will allow NCS to better support its clients, and ensure that its workers are themselves, prepared for the AI revolution,' he said. NCS currently has over 1,000 professionals certified across major cloud platforms including AWS, Google, Microsoft and Nvidia. 'By working together among government, industry, as well as our unions, we can institutionalise the use of AI within companies, develop AI-driven models and solutions that are locally relevant, and equip our workforce with AI skills, so that we can transform our enterprises and workers to fully harness the power of AI,' DPM Gan concluded.
