Supermarket players are continuing to grow their physical footprint in Singapore, opening more stores in the face of competition from online grocers and stiff competition.

News of supermarket chain Giant closing stores is seen by market watchers not as a symptom of decline in the grocery business, but a sign of the retailer withdrawing from one segment and training its focus on another.

Giant closed nine stores in a span of six months this year, leaving the chain with 45 outlets here as at September, down from 53 in February, based on an earlier media report.

ROXY Square’s collective sale tender closed on Thursday (Sep 26) with no bids, after the freehold mixed-use development in Katong was launched for sale in July at a guide price of S$1.25 billion. 

JLL executive director of capital markets Tan Hong Boon told The Business Times: “At the close of tender today, no bids were received. The collective sale is now moving into a 10-week private treaty process, in which negotiations will be taking place during this period with a few interested parties.”

Roxy Square’s guide price reflects a land rate of about S$2,094 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr) and is inclusive of land betterment charge at the base gross plot ratio of 3.86.

THE chief executive of Hong Kong’s New World Development, Adrian Cheng – the third-generation scion of the firm’s founding family – has resigned and will be replaced by its chief operating officer Eric Ma Siu-cheung, the company said on Thursday (Sep 26).

New World Development made the announcement in a stock exchange filing as it reported a loss of HK$11.8 billion (S$2 billion) for the financial year ended June.

Trading in shares of the company were suspended on Thursday and will resume trading on Friday.

“(Cheng) has tendered his resignation as the chief executive officer of the company to devote more time on public services and other personal commitments,” the company said, adding that he will take up a non-executive role.

New World has struggled to recover from a drop in property demand brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic while also facing a prolonged slump in retail markets and surging interest rates.

Cheng will establish a separate firm to manage the business of New World’s flagship K11 retail projects, the company said. The 44-year-old tycoon succeeded his father Henry Cheng as CEO in 2020 and rapidly expanded New World’s business in Hong Kong and mainland China with large-scale projects including malls and offices.

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However, New World’s market capitalisation has shrunk to about US$2.7 billion from US$12 billion when Adrian Cheng took over, and its stock has slid nearly 80 per cent since a mid-2021 peak reached before the onset of a debt crisis in China’s property sector.

New World has the highest debt among Hong Kong peers at HK$199 billion, JPMorgan data showed in July, with net gearing that counts perpetual bonds as debt standing at 77 per cent.

That compared to 17 per cent to 40 per cent at Henderson Land, CK Asset and Sun Hung Kai Properties.

New World has accelerated the sale of assets to raise funds. Last year, it sold roughly 97 per cent of infrastructure arm NWS Holdings to parent Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, receiving nearly US$3 billion to help cut debt.

This month it said it expected core operating profit from continuing operations to fall as much as 23 per cent due to lack of revenue, with a fair value and impairment loss of as much as HK$9.5 billion.

Cheng’s father said last year in a television interview that he had yet to decide on a successor to run the broader group and that he could hire someone from outside the family.

It is uncommon for an outsider to lead the business of a Hong Kong tycoon’s family.

“It depends on whether a company is being managed well; it may not necessarily suit all family businesses to introduce someone from outside,” said UOB Kay Hian director Steven Leung. “But for New World, changing corporate culture by bringing in professional management could be good, but the person has to balance the interests of family members as well.”

New World was founded by late billionaire Cheng Yu-tung and has businesses in sectors as varied as infrastructure, retail, transport and insurance. REUTERS

COUNTRY Garden Holdings has won bondholders’ approval to push back payments on its nine yuan bonds by six months, according to people familiar with the matter, giving the developer more time to map out an onshore debt overhaul.

Bondholders approved a payment extension on Country Garden’s 4.5 per cent note due 2026 late on Wednesday (Sep 26) after its main onshore unit delayed the voting deadline multiple times. Payment delays on eight other bonds were granted earlier this month, the people said, citing private conversations.

Country Garden did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The payment delays offer Country Garden some breathing room as its seeks to draw up a fresh holistic restructuring plan. But onshore bondholders will now have to wait longer to recoup part of their losses from the defaulted developer.

Country Garden sought the six-month extensions after failing to secure enough cash to repay principal and interest on the yuan notes.

Three of the bonds that were granted delays had already gotten extensions twice before, including a 4.8 per cent note, a 6.3 per cent note and another 4.8 per cent bond.

Once China’s biggest developer by sales, Country Garden has seen a sharper slowdown than its peers during the nation’s housing slump, due to its focus on projects in smaller cities. Its contracted sales plunged 78 per cent in the first eight months of the year, more than double the slide seen at the nation’s 100 biggest property firms.

Offshore, Country Garden won a six-month respite for separate restructuring talks in July, when a liquidation hearing in Hong Kong was adjourned until late January. The company said at the time that it expected key creditor groups to agree on a debt term sheet by the end of September. Country Garden defaulted on its US dollar debt in October last year. BLOOMBERG