Latest news with #GIC
Independent Singapore
4 hours ago
- Business
- Independent Singapore
GIC backs 3G Capital in acquisition of footwear firm Skechers in S$12b deal
SINGAPORE: GIC is set to back the acquisition of Skechers, a leading global footwear company, in partnership with 3G Capital. The investment firms have filed a joint application to India's Competition Commission (CCI) for approval of the deal. According to the notice submitted on 26 June 2025, the transaction involves 3G Capital indirectly acquiring Skechers' outstanding shares. Skechers is the third-largest footwear company in the world. The transaction will see it go private for around US$9.4 billion (S$12 billion). The deal is expected to close in Q3 2025. Following this, Skechers' stock will be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. Known for its wide range of lifestyle and performance products, Skechers operates in 180 countries and has annual sales of US$9 billion. Most recently, it reported record sales of $2.41 billion in Q1 2025. With 65% of its revenue coming from international markets, Skechers has shown a strong global presence. GIC's involvement brings strategic benefits to the deal. The sovereign wealth fund will provide capital and gain certain rights in the company. It could benefit from 3G Capital's track record of improving operations. GIC likely sees long-term growth potential in Skechers' focus on affordable, comfort-driven products. Most recently, it backed the acquisition of German property tech firm Techem. Its assets under management (AUM) as of July 2025 are estimated at $800 billion by the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute, while research firm GlobalSWF suggests an AUM of $847 billion. GIC does not disclose its AUM as a matter of policy, to protect Singapore's reserves from speculative attack. In its 2023/2024 annual report, it reported nominal returns of 5.8% and a real return of 3.9%. 3G Capital, which backs major consumer brands like Burger King and Kraft Heinz, aims to strengthen Skechers' solid market position and worldwide distribution network. The investment will see the company's founder Robert Greenberg retained to lead it post-acquisition. The decision to go private comes during tough market conditions. These include high U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports and trade tensions between the U.S. and its trading partners. Given Skechers' manufacturing base and international supply chains, going private permits more flexible restructuring of supply chains and operations. For Skechers, the deal will provide an opportunity to improve operational efficiencies. Taking the company private offers more flexibility due to reduced shareholder pressure. Its focus on comfortable products, new technologies, and strong brand recognition puts it in a good position for ongoing growth. The CCI application shows that the parties believe the deal will not seriously harm competition in India. This is an important factor for international acquisitions.
NDTV
3 days ago
- General
- NDTV
Saudi's 'Sleeping Prince' Alwaleed Bin Khaled Dies After 20 Years In Coma
New Delhi: Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Khaled bin Talal died on Saturday, two decades after falling into a coma following a serious car accident in London in 2005. He was 36. The Global Imams Council said in a statement, "The Global Imams Council extends its sincere condolences and heartfelt sympathy Royal Highness Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and the esteemed Royal Family, on the passing of Prince Alwaleed bin Khaled bin Talal Al Saud, who passed away after a long struggle that lasted nearly twenty years following a tragic accident." Statement On the Passing of Prince Alwaleed bin Khaled bin Talal Al Saud — Global Imams Council (GIC) (@ImamsOrg) July 19, 2025 "With hearts full of faith in Allah's decree and destiny, and with profound sadness and sorrow, we mourn our beloved son Prince Al-Waleed bin Khaled bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, may Allah have mercy on him, who passed away to Allah's mercy today," his father, Prince Khaled bin Talal said in a statement. Prince Alwaleed was 15 when the accident occurred while he was studying at a military college in the UK. The crash caused critical brain injuries and internal bleeding, leaving him in a complete coma. He was later moved to King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh, where he remained on life support under constant medical care for almost 20 years. Over the years, Prince Alwaleed came to be known as 'The Sleeping Prince.' Occasional footage showing minimal movement, such as the lifting of fingers, gave brief moments of hope to those following his condition. Despite treatment by American and Spanish specialists, he never regained full consciousness. His father, Prince Khaled bin Talal, remained fully committed to saving his son's life, repeatedly refusing to withdraw life support. He said that only God determines the moment of death. Born in April 1990, Prince Alwaleed was the eldest son of Prince Khaled bin Talal Al Saud and a nephew of billionaire businessman Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. Funeral prayers will be held on Sunday, July 20, after the Asr prayer at Imam Turki bin Abdullah Mosque in Riyadh.
Herald Sun
3 days ago
- Politics
- Herald Sun
Nova 96.9's Fitzy and Wippa back ABCs and PM's Spelling Bee
Don't miss out on the headlines from National. Followed categories will be added to My News. Battle-weary mums and dads skidding into term 3 convinced it's time for operation damage control can take some comfort in knowing that they're not alone. Even Nova 96.9's famously laconic radio personality Ryan 'Fitzy' Fitzgerald, father to Hewie, 16, and Lenny, 12, feels major social transformations like social media, AI and geopolitical tensions have disproportionately pulled focus. 'We've got a couple of wars … it is quite confusing at the moment,' Fitzy said. 'There's a lot of uncertainty out there.' But have these global forces distracted all the adults in the room from adequately monitoring Australian children's literacy development? That's a question worrying the majority of parents. Exclusive new research reveals 64 per cent of Australian school parents (K-12) fear kids' education is at risk of becoming collateral damage as societal stresses mount. Fitzy & Wippa, pictured in the 96.9 studio at Nova Radio in Sydney, joined the launch of the PM's Spelling Bee. Picture: Justin Lloyd. Two in three parent respondents 'worry the education of this generation is being overlooked and damaged in the face of growing societal change and the pressures on families'. That concern peaks for children in junior primary, with 72 per cent of surveyed parents in agreement. The survey of 1307 Australians – conducted exclusively for Kids News as part of the June 2025 Lighthouse Consumer Tracker, by News Corp Australia's Growth Intelligence Centre (GIC) – comes as the free classroom news site's flagship literacy initiative, the Prime Minister's Spelling Bee, opens for its fifth year on Monday. After the competition's record 70,557 student registrations last year, leading social demographer Mark McCrindle said the PM's Spelling Bee's surging popularity nationwide was part of a 'corrective' movement 'back to the real world'. 'We do need to master English for our future and parents are pretty clear on that,' Mr McCrindle said. 'Can our children write? Can they construct sentences? That (GIC) survey picked that up … literacy and numeracy really are front of mind for parents, through that practical lens of what it means for their (children's) future.' Recent McCrindle research has itself found that while parents support wellbeing as a focus in schools, they also want to know that students are equipped 'with foundation learning blocks and therefore with the ability to thrive'. Leading Australian demographer Mark McCrindle. 'That's why we're starting to see an intense focus back on the basics,' Mr McCrindle said. 'There's a need for priority and a recognition that maybe we've eased off a bit too much on the foundation responsibility of schools, and that's to deliver on numeracy and literacy.' The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) CEO Stephen Gniel agreed that 'early intervention is the key to improving educational outcomes'. As the nation's main measure of kids' essential literacy skills and knowledge, Mr Gniel said the results of ACARA's NAPLAN assessments were an important tool for teachers and parents 'to identify if a student is at risk of falling behind'. Registrations and the school round for the fifth annual Prime Minister's Spelling Bee open at 9am AEST on Monday 21 July. Now established on the annual calendar for educators teaching across years 3-8, the Prime Minister's Spelling Bee is an additional tool, delivered in schools as a free, fun challenge that kids simply enjoy. 'Literacy is one of the foundational skills that underpins learning and life, so it is fantastic that the Prime Minister's Spelling Bee is highlighting this important issue,' Mr Gniel said. News Corp Australia community ambassador Penny Fowler said the fifth year of competition was cause for celebration. 'The Prime Minister's Spelling Bee has fantastic momentum, growing in popularity every year and bringing to the fore the critical role literacy plays in educating young Australians and positively impacting their path to adulthood,' Ms Fowler said. 'Amid concerns about children's social media exposure, it's inspiring to see so many embrace the written word to unlock a lifetime of learning, reflecting Kids News' belief that education is an investment in future generations.' News Corp Australia community ambassador Penny Fowler said the fifth year of the Prime Minister's Spelling Bee was cause for celebration. Picture: David Caird Fitzy's Nova co-host and devoted father of three Michael 'Wippa' Wipfli said the PM's Spelling Bee 'rewards concentration, curiosity and persistence'. 'Every child deserves the chance to shine through effort, not algorithms,' Wippa said. 'A good old-fashioned spelling bee offers more than just a chance to memorise words – it helps kids to slow down and build confidence at a time when many are overwhelmed.' Michael 'Wippa' Wipfli pictured at home with his family, from left Francesca, Wippa, Jack, Lisa and Ted. Wippa is a strong advocate of raising the minimum age for social media use and is an active supporter of the 36 Months campaign. Picture: Sam Ruttyn A big believer in cultivating resilience in kids, Fitzy said the Bee was 'an unbelievable confidence-building' initiative. 'We need to start learning and adapting, combining the latest technology with those basic skills of literacy, English, grammar that we grew up with,' he said, likening his own sons' development to 'getting into the gym':'You're not going to see results straightaway, but when you do start seeing results, it's really fulfilling.' Catch Fitzy & Wippa with Kate Ritchie from 6am at Nova 96.9 in Sydney and nationally on Nova Player. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese launched the milestone birthday of the Prime Minister's Spelling Bee with the help of Rockdale Public School. These students were finalists in the NSW Premier's Spelling Bee and principal Amy Ha said the school was entering the national spelling challenge for the first time in 2025. Picture: Jonathan Ng ABOUT THE BEE ● The Prime Minister's Spelling Bee is a free, online competition for students in Years 3-8. ● Students compete at their school in three levels: Green level for Years 3-4, Orange level for Years 5-6 and Red level for Years 7-8. ● They get 30 randomly selected words from their competition level and have 25 seconds to type each answer. The students with the most correct words in the fastest time progress to finals. ● Teachers can register their students from July 21 when the school round begins. ● The school round ends on August 22. State and territory finals will be held September 1-5 and the national finals on September 10-11. ● The national champion in each age group wins a trip to Canberra to meet the Prime Minister, an iPad, HarperCollins book pack and a $1000 voucher for their school. Details: The PM's Spelling Bee is the flagship literacy initiative of free classroom news site FROM 'FUTURE STRESS TO CAN-DO KIDS Parents are worried children will pay the price for today's pressures and uncertainties – and kids are feeling it too. Research by online mental health service ReachOut found nearly half of 16-18 year olds (43 per cent) said 'future stress' was one of the issues concerning them most. ReachOut clinical governance lead Linda Williams. Picture: supplied ReachOut clinical governance lead Linda Williams said young Australians' worries included climate anxiety, world news and future jobs. While solid foundation literacy skills like spelling will always help young Aussies prosper, Ms Williams said ReachOut had some building blocks for parents to help children unburden themselves and embrace the future as can-do kids: Maintain open communication 'Regular check-ins about how they're going can be really helpful to understand what challenges they are dealing with, how these might change over time and how (difficulties) are impacting (them). Approaching conversations … with curiosity can help.' Try not to minimise or dismiss their feelings 'Trying to understand where they are coming from, what's causing them stress and how it's impacting them is a really important first step, which can come from conversations but also from observing their mood and any changes.' Identify options 'Once you understand more it can become more clear what kind of support and coping strategies could be helpful. That could include things like mental health support, scheduling in times for hobbies they love and screen breaks.' Practice self-care 'Parents are sometimes dealing with similar challenges themselves in real time too. (Having) the energy to support your young person when they need you is also vital,' Ms Williams said. ReachOut supports Australian parents and kids at Originally published as Era of uncertainty has put focus for kids' education back on basics
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
NTT DC REIT's flat trading debut shows Singapore's struggle to revive a ‘lackluster' stock market
NTT DC REIT's IPO was supposed to be a shot in the arm for Singapore's flagging equity market, decried by analysts as 'lackluster' due to its lack of growth stocks and tiny number of listings. NTT's IPO had everything: It was oversubscribed, boasted sovereign wealth fund GIC as a cornerstone investor, and was tied to the buzzy data center sector. Yet NTT DC REIT's shares have done poorly since their trading debut on Monday, falling below the offer price of $1. Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index is up by almost 25% so far this year, while Singapore's Straits Times Index is up by just 9%. 'Singapore's lack of growth oriented, tech representation in the STI has led it to trail the Hang Seng. This has led to descriptions of the market as lackluster,' Thilan Wickramasinghe, Singapore head of research at Maybank Investment Banking Group, says. Singapore has had just three IPOs so far this year, including a July 14 listing from NTT DC REIT, whose shares started trading on Monday. Hong Kong, by comparison, has had more than 40 IPOs. NTT DC REIT, backed by Japanese telecoms giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, raised $773 million in its IPO, making it Singapore's largest listing in eight years. By comparison, Hong Kong's largest IPO this year was battery giant CATL's secondary listing in late May, which raised at least $4 billion. The NTT DC REIT IPO was meant to give investors a way to tap into AI-fueled demand for data centers, and give Singapore's equity market a much needed boost. Instead, it may end up showing just how much work still needs to be done. NTT DC Reit's listing NTT DC REIT consists of six data centers. Four are based in the U.S., with one in Northern Virginia—the world's largest data center market—and three in Northern California. One data center is in Vienna, a fast-growing data center market. The last is in Singapore, the second-largest data center market in Asia-Pacific after China. Data centers are key to running AI applications. These specialized data centers provide the computational power and digital data storage capacity that's needed to train the ever increasingly complex AI applications. AI applications, like large language models, rely on massive amounts of data for training and operation. Singapore has long been a regional data center hub due to its infrastructure, lack of natural disasters, and its position as a key node for subsea cables. Generative AI requires massive amounts of computing power, both for training and inference, which in turn has sparked a boom in data center investment. NTT hopes to capture that need for data center capacity, using the proceeds from its listing to continue growing its data center business. The company plans to develop over 850MW of capacity across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. NTT estimates that total annual cloud and AI revenues are projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of about 23% between 2024 and 2027, driven by AI-led demand. Asia-Pacific attracted $15.5 billion in data center investments last year, more than any other region in the world according to the real estate consultancy Knight Frank. The consultancy forecasts global capital expenditure to exceed $286 billion by 2027 as operators respond to mounting demand for AI-optimized infrastructure, cloud services, and enterprise digital initiatives. Singapore's equity market Doug Adams, CEO for NTT Global Data Centers, explained that the company picked Singapore due to its appreciation for data centers. 'The Singapore market is a great market for data centers in general, and we believe the best market in the world for data center Reits,' Adams said in an interview on CNBC International on Monday. 'In Singapore, they appreciate a global set of assets and they look for a drip feed of assets over time, which is what we're looking to achieve for our portfolio.' GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, is one of the IPO's cornerstone investors. GIC has a 9.8% stake in NTT DC REIT, making it the second largest investor after NTT. Singapore is trying to lift the fortunes of its stock exchange, including a 20% tax rebate for primary listings. The country's stock market is often criticized as boring or illiquid, with the sectors like property, conglomerates and the three big local banks dominating the SGX. Poor liquidity weakens investor sentiment, which then leads to lower valuations or even fewer listings. While Singapore's exchange struggles, Hong Kong's is surging, which Wickramasinghe credits to the 'DeepSeek moment' and Beijing's pro-growth stance. Lorraine Tan, director of equity research for Asia at Morningstar, notes that Hong Kong's market is also rebounding from years of poor performance, making the market 'relatively cheap in valuation terms.' She adds that the surge in Hong Kong IPOs could also be due to Chinese regulators giving their approval for mainland companies to list in Hong Kong. Recent blockbuster IPOs in Hong Kong include home appliance maker Midea Group, ice cream giant Mixue, and insurer FWD Group. Other giants like automaker Chery, AI startup Minimax, Malaysian aviation firm Capital A and fast fashion platform Shein are reportedly considering Hong Kong IPOs. Hong Kong is now set to be the world's top IPO destination this year, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence Data. Still, Wickramasinghe is optimistic that Singapore's policy reforms should help the market 'shed its lackluster image going forward.' 'The recent listing of NTT DC Reit is an early signal of returning listings. We expect this momentum to accelerate going into H2,' Wickramasinghe says. This story was originally featured on
Business Times
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Business Times
Art:Dis launches art studio for persons with disabilities, with funding from GIC
[SINGAPORE] Non-profit organisation Art:Dis, which supports persons with disabilities in the arts, will launch its own art studio at Pocket Fest, a mini arts festival promoting inclusivity in the arts this weekend. Sovereign wealth fund GIC will provide funding of S$600,000 over the next three years for Art:Dis Studio, in an initiative to improve the employability of persons with disabilities (PWDs) by providing vocational training and gig-matching opportunities. Angela Tan, executive director of Art:Dis, (*see amendment note below), said: 'The S$600,000 will primarily support stipends for PWDs taking part in the supported studio programme, ensuring they are compensated for their time and creative contributions. It will also cover essential costs related to artist training, materials and the production of merchandise, enabling us to sustain a professional and empowering creative ecosystem for our artists.' Art:Dis Studio, which had a soft opening in 2024, will expand beyond its pilot phase; it is expected to benefit 80 artists. Tan said: 'Through our pilot, we focused on individuals not engaged in full-time employment and discovered significant untapped potential. Many of them possessed strong creative capabilities but lacked the structure, networks and confidence to turn this into sustainable income.' A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Friday, 2 pm Lifestyle Our picks of the latest dining, travel and leisure options to treat yourself. Sign Up Sign Up Noting Singapore's national target of achieving employment for four in 10 PWDs by 2030, she said many of them are now hired in roles to fill manpower gaps, 'which may not always align with the diverse talents, interests and capacities of PWDs'. She added that Art:Dis Studio provides 'alternative employment pathways', where trainees can be supported in a structured studio environment and earn income. The opportunities available to trainees will be tailored to their strengths. The studio hopes to facilitate gig-based engagements for those who can work independently. These opportunities could include, for example, commissioned artwork, design projects and corporate or public workshops. Those who need additional support will work with trainers to create original merchandise. Deanna Ong, chief people officer at GIC, said: 'Our partnership with ART:DIS began a decade ago and has evolved from supporting foundational programmes to empowering artists with disabilities to earn a livelihood through their talents. Our support for this new programme goes beyond funding to include the commitment of our employee volunteers, who provide support to trainees as they work within the studio.' Tan said Art:Dis Studio will also give trainees the opportunity to build their social skills, as they connect with other creatives and educators. 'This social connectedness plays a critical role in addressing the isolation many experience after graduating from special-education schools, particularly if they are unable to access open employment pathways,' she added. Trainees will also take the reins as lead or co-facilitator of hands-on workshops, where they can teach their craft to others. Tan noted that many companies these days are increasingly incorporating such workshops for their employees or clients. 'Over time, these opportunities not only provide income, but also help build our artists' confidence and sense of purpose, while fostering inclusive spaces where participants can connect meaningfully with them through the shared art-making experience,' she said. Pocket Fest will be held at Objectifs, an independent non-profit visual arts space in Middle Road. The mini arts festival will feature 55 artists with disabilities in exhibitions and workshops in areas such as coffee art-making and clay craft, and members of the public can meet and talk to them about their work. Tan said: 'Ultimately, we hope attendees leave with a deeper appreciation for the artists' talents, a renewed sense of how each of us can support PWDs, and a more human understanding of how creativity can bring us closer together.' Amendment note: The quote has been amended to correctly reflect the attribution
