The Assembly Place gears up for Catalist IPO; Hong Kong’s CNE eyes secondary listing

SINGAPORE - The Singapore Exchange (SGX) looks set to begin 2026 with two listings already confirmed in the pipeline.

Co-living operator The Assembly Place (TAP) lodged its preliminary prospectus

for a listing on Catalist on Dec 30, while Hong Kong-listed renewable energy company Concord New Energy (CNE) said it received a letter of eligibility for a secondary listing here.

Founded in 2019, TAP runs a portfolio of residential co-living spaces, hotels and serviced apartments, and accommodation for students and foreign healthcare professionals.

It claims to be the largest community-living operator in Singapore, managing about 3,422 rooms across 100 property assets. Its community-driven stays segment, a core tenet of its business model, focuses on building a sense of community for and enhancing the well-being of its residents through regular event and workshop programming.

“We believe these initiatives increase customer satisfaction, foster cohesion and identity within our community, reduce vacancy and turnover, and act as a key differentiator in the market for our group,” it said in its prospectus.

TAP aims to manage 10,000 rooms by the end of 2030, and plans to use the net proceeds from its initial public offering (IPO) to fund this expansion. This includes joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, and overseas properties such as a new 66-room hotel in the Bangsar area of Kuala Lumpur slated to open this year.

For the financial year 2024, the company recorded $18.9 million in revenue, up 32.2 per cent from 2023, and a net profit of $6.2 million, reversing from the previous year’s loss of $899,000. Revenue for the first half of 2025 rose 43.6 per cent to $11.6 million compared with the same period a year ago. TAP share trading is expected to begin on Jan 23.

If successful, this will be the second co-living operator to list on SGX. Coliwoo joined the mainboard on Nov 6, 2025, raising total gross proceeds of $101 million. It closed the week flat at 55.5 cents, unchanged from the previous week’s close.

The second potential listing, renewable energy company CNE, was founded in 1997 and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2007 as China WindPower Group. It subsequently rebranded under its present name in 2015 and relocated its headquarters to Singapore in 2023.

The company operates and invests in wind and solar plants under its core power generation business. Its other business segment comprises provision of design, technical and consultancy services; engineering, procurement and construction of power plants; and finance leasing to the company’s existing customers which it intends to wind down.

As at June 30, 2025, CNE had equity interests in 91 grid-connected wind and solar power plants, with a total installed capacity of 6.025GW and attributable installed capacity of around 4.78GW. It is reportedly planning to spend more than $1 billion over the next five years for expansion.

Keppel Reit finalises acquisition of MBFC Tower 3

Shares of Keppel real estate investment trust (Reit) briefly rose on Dec 31 after it finalised the acquisition of a further one-third stake in Marina Bay Financial Tower (MBFC) Tower 3 from Hongkong Land. Post-acquisition, Keppel Reit now holds a two-thirds stake in the office building, with the remaining one-third stake held by the tower’s anchor tenant DBS Bank.

In a Dec 26 filing, Keppel Reit said it is launching an $886.3 million preferential offering for over 923 million new units. Entitled unit holders will be offered 23 new units at an issue price of 96 cents each for every 100 existing units. The proceeds will be used to partially finance the acquisition of the additional one-third stake from a unit of Hongkong Land at an agreed property value of $1.45 billion.

Keppel Reit’s counter rose 0.52 per cent to 97.5 cents after the acquisition was completed on Dec 31. It closed the week at 97 cents, unchanged from the previous week’s close.

Mr Chua Hsien Yang, chief executive of the Reit’s manager, said at a dialogue with the Securities Investors Association Singapore (Sias) on Dec 30 that Keppel Reit had been keen to acquire more stakes in the other two MBFC towers and One Raffles Quay, but ultimately did not follow through as it would have exceeded the regulatory limit. The acquisition brought its overall debt up to 49.9 per cent, which is just below the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) limit of 50 per cent.

After the sale, Hongkong Land moved its remaining assets into a new Singapore-based private real estate fund after its existing partners chose not to exercise their right to buy first. It closed the week 0.4 per cent higher at US$7.05.

Mainboard-listed SUTL to acquire Marina at Keppel Bay

Marina at Keppel Bay will be sold to marina developer SUTL Enterprise. The deal, worth $40 million, was announced in a bourse filing by mainboard-listed SUTL on Dec 30. It will be paid for by cash and is expected to be completed in the second half of 2026. The group’s cash and cash balances were around $30.9 million for the period ended June 2025, with other financial assets at around $34 million.

The 166-berth marina will be renamed One°15 Marina Keppel Bay after the acquisition and combined with the 270 berths at SUTL’s existing One°15 Marina Sentosa Cove 270, this will make the company the largest owner-operator of integrated marinas in Singapore.

SUTL said it will invest in modernisation and infrastructure upgrades for the marina, including upgraded berthing infrastructure and services, improved clubhouse amenities, integrated wellness and lifestyle concepts, and new retail spaces.

Shares of SUTL rose on Dec 31 to briefly hit its highest of 95 cents. It closed the week at 94 cents, up 8.7 per cent from the previous week’s close.

Don Agro pivots from agriculture to healthcare

Previously a Russian farming company, Don Agro International will now transform into a healthcare business focusing on cancer treatment.

It announced in a filing on Dec 30 details on its plans to acquire a Russian group of expert oncology clinics operating under the Euroonco brand for 3.04 billion roubles (S$48.7 million), to be paid for by cash. It had first announced its plan to acquire the medical business on Sept 12, 2024.

Following the acquisition, it will change its name to UpHealth Group. It will seek shareholders’ approval for this deal at an extraordinary general meeting slated to be held on Jan 28.

“The company believes that there are positive prospects in the medical industry in Russia which will provide additional and recurrent revenue streams for the group and will allow the group to have better prospects of achieving profitability and ensure longer-term growth,” Don Agro said in its filing.

It joined the Catalist board in February 2020 and sold its original farming business in July 2024.

Since then, it has been classified as a cash company by SGX and is obliged to find a new operating business or be delisted.

A cash company is one that is still listed on the stock exchange, but other than holding cash, no longer does any business.

After trading flat at 13 cents for the whole of December, the company’s shares saw a brief dip before climbing to 15.9 cents on Dec 31 following its announcement. It closed the week 19.2 per cent higher at 15.5 cents.

Other market movers

Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker Nio saw a surge in its share price last week, on the back of a report that it will be relying more on batteries by CATL, the world’s largest lithium-ion battery manufacturer.

Industry publication CnEVPost said on Dec 27 that Nio had ended a battery supply agreement with competitor BYD’s battery unit FinDreams, as orders for its sub-brand Onvo’s L60 SUV were deemed too low to sustain multiple battery suppliers.

The counter climbed through the week and closed the week 10.9 per cent higher at US$5.50.

CATL has been Nio’s primary battery supplier since the EV maker was founded in 2014. In 2020, the two companies established the joint venture Mirattery with other entities to handle Nio’s battery assets.

Nio hit a 40,000-deliveries milestone for its ES8 SUV on Dec 29, just 11 days after crossing the 30,000-deliveries mark.

Mandarin Oriental announced on Dec 31 that it will pay out a special dividend of 60 US cents a share from the sale of parts of One Causeway Bay to its shareholders on Jan 22.

The special dividend will be paid to Mandarin Oriental shareholders who are on the registers of members at the close of business on Jan 9. Shares will be quoted ex-dividend on Jan 8, and the share registers will be closed from Jan 12 to 15, inclusive.

The company had announced on Oct 17 that Alibaba Group and Ant Group had agreed to acquire the top 13 floors of the Grade-A office and retail Hong Kong skyscraper, along with its rooftop signage and 50 parking spaces, to house their headquarters in a deal worth US$925 million.

The completion of the building’s sale also satisfies a condition for the acquisition of Mandarin Oriental by Jardine Strategic, a Jardine Matheson subsidiary, in a privatisation deal that would value the company at US$4.2 billion.

The counter briefly spiked 1.5 per cent on Jan 2 before closing the week 0.9 per cent higher at US$3.33.

What to look out for this week

Markets could be volatile in the wake of a US attack on Venezuela and its capture of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro on Jan 2 to 3.

A slew of US data will be released through the week, including statistics for the manufacturing and services sectors and employment numbers for the month of December.