Daily news - 14 Oct

CapitaLand and units raised $5b this year
CapitaLand – The group and its various listed entities have raised more than $5bn of debt year-to-date, the developer said yesterday. CapitaLand reported the figures in slides that it posted on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) website. The company intends to present the slides to investors at Macquarie's International Real Estate Conference in London and New York from Oct 13-17. The developer added that it has good access to capital markets. In July, the company secured a $2bn development loan for its upcoming Farrer Road condo. CapitaLand shares have lost 56.5% so far this year as several analysts downgraded the stock to a 'sell'. In H1, the developer had a net debt of $8.2bn. Cash reserves stood at $3.4bn and the debt-to-equity ratio was 0.68 - but the two numbers exclude recent recycled capital of some $2.9bn from projects such as 1 George Street and Somerset Orchard. Separately, CapitaLand announced yesterday that its wholly-owned serviced residence unit The Ascott Group has acquired a historic building in Paris for 21.5m euros (S$42.9m) in cash. Ascott has held a lease on the 51-unit Citadines Paris Louvre from Predica since it first acquired the Citadines chain in 2002.

NOL ships 6% more boxes
Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) – Carried 6% more containers on its ships in the four weeks to Sept 19 from a year ago. It said in a statement yesterday that its shipping arm APL carried the equivalent of 204,000 40-foot containers on its ships during the same period.

Swiber unit clinches US$7m India deal
Swiber Holdings – The service provider in the offshore industry yesterday said a 70%-subsidiary has clinched a US$7m letter of intent to provide subsea services to an offshore project in India. Separately, Swiber said it has formed a 50:50 joint venture with Saudi Arabia's Rawabi Holding to provide services in the field of offshore construction and bid for projects in the Gulf countries.

Source: Kim Eng