Daily news - 17 Nov

SingTel clinches $1.07b loans
Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) has secured loans amounting to about $1.075 billion to refinance debt and for general working capital. The company yesterday announced it has entered into two agreements with lenders in Singapore and Australia. The first is a $350 million credit facility with the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, DBS Bank and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation, that will mature in November 2013. Its Australian unit Optus has separately put pen to paper on a 3.5-year, A$725 million (S$721 million) syndicated loan with a group of five banks. The lenders involved in this deal - which matures in April 2012 - are Australia & New Zealand Banking Group, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Citibank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Westpac Banking Corp, according to a SingTel statement.

Olam holding back on mergers, acquisitions
Olam International plans to hold back on mergers and acquisitions in the current credit crisis until the credit markets stabilise and capital availability improves. It will also be more cautious when it comes to making new capital investments. However, Olam highlighted that total equity has grown to $1 billion, and that it has strong cashflow from operations amounting to $529.1 million. At a results briefing yesterday, Olam announced a 62 per cent year-on-year surge in net profit to $14.9 million for the FY2009 first quarter ended Sept 30, on the back of strong performance across its four business segments. Total revenue grew 24.6 per cent to $1.72 billion, compared with $1.38 billion. Earnings per share were 0.87 cents, up from 0.59 cents in 1Q08.

Source: Kim Eng