Ben Paul Markets

16/07/2025

The Kospi has gained about 33 per cent so far this year to near a record high. The gauge is trading at 10.7 times 12-month forward earnings estimates, compared with a ratio of 15 for Japan’s Topix.
A key driver for the upswing was the passage of the commercial code revision, aimed at improving corporate governance and helping protect the rights of minority shareholders, after Lee’s election win in June.
“Organisations like the Federation of Korean Industries wouldn’t have seen the Commercial Act passing,” Oh said, referring to the body representing the country’s conglomerates. “They were caught off guard and now scrambling to respond.”

SOUTH Korea is seeking to redirect household wealth concentrated in real estate into equities, according to a lawmaker spearheading a committee tasked with supercharging the nation’s stock market. Read more at The Business Times.

16/07/2025

Three days after listing, NTT DC REIT is underwater – even though the STI is galloping higher.

14/07/2025

Some of the largest companies listed in Singapore have become interesting to investors recently, including quite a few in Temasek’s fold. Why is it happening now? Shifting global capital flows is one answer. But maybe it's also because Covid pushed companies to unlock value and strengthen their businesses, with the backing of their controlling shareholders.
Here's the latest column, in :

[SINGAPORE] Every year, as I plough through the Temasek Review, I make a note of the more exotic and far flung companies in its portfolio, and try to educate myself about their businesses and financial performance. Read more at The Business Times.

11/07/2025

In the TV show Shameless, the character Phillip "Lip" Gallagher, a brilliant teenager from a poor and dysfunctional family, lands an opportunity to attend MIT and punch his ticket to a better life. But he insists on being allowed to just play in the lab, and to think for himself instead of attending lectures.
“Great things don't happen in tiny little increments,” he said. “You know, they happen when someone thinks completely differently. And all you geniuses, you're just ... you're just modifying algorithms.”

"Shameless" Lip's interview with MIT. Music: "At World's End" by Blackchords

11/07/2025

Data centre REITs might grab attention next week, with the listing of NTT DC REIT. So, I thought what Stoneweg Europe Stapled Trust is doing in the data centre field might be interesting for the column in .
To be honest, the feedback today hasn’t been all good. There is something of a trust deficit when it comes to foreign sponsor groups, and the fees investors are charged – which this column did not address.

AS THE Singapore market prepares to welcome NTT DC Reit next week, another locally-listed property trust has hatched an intriguing plan to ride the widely expected surge in demand for data centres around the world. Read more at The Business Times.

07/07/2025

In the movie Other People’s Money, a corporate raider played by Danny Devito demands that a company he’s stalking gets rid of a big loss-making business that’s weighing down its stock price. The company refuses, and the president attempts to fob him off by pointing out that he’s already made money from his investment.

“You bought the stock at 10. It’s now 14,” the company’s president says.

Devito’s character shoots back, “The stock is 14 because I’m buying it. I’m doing my part. Now you do yours.”

20 seconds · Clipped by Ben Paul · Original video "Other People's Money [1991] PARTE 1" by Renato Alves Bertoldi

07/07/2025

Most of the recent Catalist listings are underwater – some for very good reasons. But I wonder if the broadening bullishness in the market might revive interest in some of the untroubled ones.
I just took a look – no volume so far today on Goodwill Entertainment, or Winking Studios. Anyway, I live in hope.

[SINGAPORE] The Singapore market seemed unstoppable last week. Read more at The Business Times.

30/06/2025

There seems to be a lot of excitement about the latest crop of IPOs. Will they be a game changer for the Singapore market? Fingers crossed.
Here's the latest column, which ran in the today:

[SINGAPORE] Markets around the world are poised to end the first half of 2025 on a bullish note this week. Read more at The Business Times.

12/06/2025

The pace of delistings from SGX hasn’t slowed, but it seems there is more resistance to lowball offers now. IFAs are inevitably going to find themselves in the crosshairs of minority investors.
Here’s my latest contribution to the column in :

[singapore] This column suggested last week that shareholders of Singapore Paincare think twice about accepting the recently announced offer at S$0.16 per share, and hold out for a better deal. Read more at The Business Times.

09/06/2025

She accepted OCBC’s first offer “at the very last minute” as she was afraid that she would be stuck with shares in a delisted company.
She was also convinced by OCBC’s repeated emphasis that they would not raise the offer price.
“I gave in at that time, because I trusted that (OCBC was) a big, reputable bank: if it said it would not increase the offer price, I thought they were serious about it,” said Jessica, who is also a shareholder of OCBC.

[SINGAPORE] OCBC on Friday (Jun 6) made a conditional exit offer at S$30.15 per share for the 6.28 per cent stake in Great Eastern it does not own, in a bid to delist the insurer. Read more at The Business Times.

09/06/2025

GEH’s effort to resolve the trading suspension mess left by the OCBC offer last year is commendable. But the exit offer is not compelling, in my view. And, if GEH resumes trading, its minority shareholders will have to push hard to ensure it doesn’t end up being suspended again.
Here’s the latest column, which ran in today:

[SINGAPORE] When Great Eastern Holdings (GEH) and its controlling shareholder OCBC put forward a two-pronged plan last week to resolve the insurer’s trading suspension, I was impressed and rather surprised that a seemingly impossible deal had been struck. Read more at The Business Times.

05/06/2025

Given OCBC’s past statements about Great Eastern, this would be an extraordinary development, if it proves to be true.

[SINGAPORE] Great Eastern is considering options that include a plan to delist via an offer by OCBC, which will be higher than its original offer in May last year, Bloomberg reported on Thursday (Jun 5). Read more at The Business Times.