Category Archives: General

SPH buys 60% of real estate analytics firm for S$30m

Posted on 7 Nov 2014 | Comments Off on SPH buys 60% of real estate analytics firm for S$30m

SINGAPORE Press Holdings (SPH) has acquired a 60 per cent stake in privately-held CoSine Holdings, the holding company for StreetSine Technology Group which consists of StreetSine Singapore, StreetSine Hong Kong and digital platforms Singapore Real Estate Exchange (SRX) and Hong Kong Real Estate Exchange (HRX), for S$30 million.

StreetSine Singapore will integrate SRX and STProperty into one digital platform to offer consumers and real estate professionals end-to-end real-time information, property applications and other services for transacting real estate in Singapore.

SPH purchased the stake from Sam Baker and Jeremy Lee, the founders of CoSine Holdings, and several other minority shareholders under an agreement inked on Oct 31.

Mr Baker and Mr Lee will maintain a combined stake of 40 per cent in StreetSine and will continue to run the company as chief executive officer and chief technology officer, respectively.

SPH and CoSine’s founders have also entered into a put and call option agreement, whereby SPH has the right to require the founders to sell their 40 per cent interest in CoSine and the founders have the right to require SPH to purchase the option shares subject to the conditions of the agreement.

“StreetSine has set the standards for providing users with real-time pricing information and easy computation like X-ValueTM, the market’s standard for computer-generated real-time property appraisals,” said Leslie Fong, senior executive vice-president of SPH’s Marketing Division.

“STProperty has all the up-to-date and reliable listings any consumer could possibly want. By combining SRX and STProperty, we offer consumers and real estate professionals a one-stop shop for all the information they will need for all property-related transactions. That’s win-win-win,” he added.

The transaction is not expected to have a material effect on SPH’s net tangible assets or earnings per share for the financial year ending August 2015.

The acquisition was done through SPH’s wholly-owned SPH Interactive.

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Singapore tops ease of business ranking again

Posted on 7 Nov 2014 | Comments Off on Singapore tops ease of business ranking again

Singapore continues to be the economy with the most business-friendly regulations, according to the World Bank’s annual Doing Business survey.

Singapore did particularly well in areas of enforcing contracts, and trading across borders; topping the list in those categories.

“Singapore made enforcing contracts easier by introducing a new electronic litigation system that streamlines litigation proceedings,” the survey said.

The country is ranked second when it comes to dealing with construction permits.

“Singapore is among those that combine high efficiency and high quality. In that country resolving the standard commercial dispute in the Doing Business case study takes only 21 procedures and 150 days and costs 25.8 percent of the value of the claim.”

Additionally the survey noted the city-state e’s judicial system follows several internationally recognised good practices, such as having a separate commercial court, providing arbitration, making judgments available to the public, using case management and allowing plaintiffs to file their initial complaint electronically.

Across 189 countries, Singapore continues to top the Doing Business survey for the ninth year, according to media reports.

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