Thomson Medical pops after scoring $5.5b Johor deal; Genting slides amid heavy trading

SINGAPORE - Thomson Medical Group scored last week when it saw its shares jump nearly 39 per cent to a 1½-year high of 6.8 cents on Aug 26, a day after it unveiled an RM18 billion (S$5.5 billion) waterfront project in Johor Bahru.

Thomson Medical is controlled by Singapore billionaire Peter Lim, who is reported to have close ties with the Johor royal family. The project will include a 500-bed hospital with aged care facilities, a luxury hotel and serviced residences.

Known as Johor Bay, the development will take place across 10.5ha of land in the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone, near the upcoming Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link’s Bukit Chagar station.

The hospital will be equipped for oncology, orthopaedics, as well as obstetrics and gynaecology. There will be enough space to double capacity from 500 beds to more than 1,000 beds in the future.

Construction is slated to begin in 2026, with the first phase involving parts of the Thomson Hospital Iskandariah. This should open when the RTS Link becomes fully operational by the end of 2026.

A 47-storey luxury residential tower will also be developed concurrently.

Shares of Thomson Medical moderated through the week to close at 6.1 cents on Aug 29.

It reported after the market closed on Aug 29 a net loss of $47 million for its financial year ended June 30, largely due to impairments associated with its US$381.4 million (S$490 million) acquisition of Vietnam’s largest private healthcare group, FV Hospital, in 2023. Revenue for the year rose 12.4 per cent to $394.6 million, after accounting for a dip in contributions from its Singapore business.

Some blue-chip stocks slide

Shares of Genting Singapore, which runs the Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) integrated resort, slid 3.4 per cent across the week to close at 72 cents on Aug 29 amid heavy trading.

Its parent company, Malaysia-listed Genting Berhad, had noted in its second-quarter earnings report on Aug 28 that RWS expects some impact from phased closures stemming from ongoing expansion work.

Construction at RWS, which will see it progressively rolling out new attractions, is scheduled for completion by 2030, Genting Berhad said.

Genting Singapore on Aug 7 had reported a 7 per cent year-on-year decline in operating profits for the second quarter, which it attributed to higher operating costs and the temporary closure of Sea Aquarium in May and June to facilitate the opening of Singapore Oceanarium.

Some analysts noted that while Genting Singapore could see a drop in the number of visitors to RWS in the coming months as construction takes place, things should improve over the longer term.

Besides Singapore Oceanarium and Minion Land, which opened in February, RWS will also debut The Laurus in October, Genting Berhad said. The launch of Singapore’s first The Luxury Collection-branded all-suite hotel, developed with Marriott International, had previously been slated for the third quarter, with no firm date given.

A few other blue-chip stocks continued their decline last week.

Sembcorp Industries slid more than 1 per cent to close the week at $6.07, while ST Engineering fell by just over 2 per cent to close at $7.68.

Both companies are now buying back their shares, which had been rising steadily to record highs since the start of 2025.

Since the beginning of August, however, shares of Sembcorp have fallen by more than 21 per cent, while ST Engineering is down by more than 12 per cent.

CapitaLand Investment, Centurion to list Reits

CapitaLand Investment (CLI) inched up through the week, rising just over 1 per cent to close at $2.76 on Aug 29.

CLI on Aug 27 announced that CapitaLand Commercial C-Reit (CLCR) had received approval from the China authorities to register for a listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, where it is aiming to raise 2.1 billion yuan (S$378 million).

CLCR will become China’s first international-sponsored retail Reit upon listing. This is expected to take place by the fourth quarter of 2025. It will be CLI’s eighth listed fund.

CLI will inject two of its properties – CapitaMall SKY+ in Guangzhou and CapitaMall Yuhuating in Changsha with a combined value of around 2.8 billion yuan – into CLCR to make up the initial portfolio. The Reit will go on to invest in operating retail assets in China and expects to benefit from the country’s policies to stimulate domestic consumption.

Centurion Corporation also rose, climbing around 1.2 per cent to close the week at $1.76.

The student and worker accommodation provider on Aug 26 issued a notice for a Sept 10 extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to vote for the proposed IPO of Centurion Accommodation Reit.

The Reit will comprise 14 assets worth $1.8 billion: five purpose-built worker accommodation assets in Singapore, as well as eight purpose-built student accommodation assets in Britain, and another in Australia.

Centurion is currently in the process of acquiring a student accommodation asset in Sydney. This will be added to the Reit portfolio when completed and will raise its total value to around $2.1 billion.

Other market movers

Singtel advanced by 2.4 per cent through the week to close at $4.31 on Aug 29.

During the week, both DBS Group Research and Maybank Securities reiterated their “buy” calls on the stock with target prices of $5.04 and $4.30, respectively.

They noted that Singtel is well placed to serve regional demand for artificial intelligence, given that it is ramping up its offerings in graphics processing units.

They also cited Singtel’s data centre business Nxera, as well as its business in Australia under Optus, as key growth drivers.

Singtel also expects that the ongoing consolidation in the Singapore telecommunications sector will ease competitive pressure here.

Civmec rose more than 2 per cent to end the week at 97 cents.

This was despite the integrated industrial services provider reporting that its net profit fell 34 per cent to A$42.5 million (S$35.7 million) for the financial year ended June 30 compared with the previous year, while revenue fell 21.6 per cent to A$810.6 million.

A final dividend of 3.5 Australia cents was declared for the period, unchanged from the year before.

Building maintenance specialist ISOTeam dropped 11 per cent across the week, closing at 8.1 cents on Aug 29.

The company’s earnings for the financial year ended June 30 declined by 21.2 per cent year on year to $5.1 million, while revenue fell by 8.4 per cent to $119.2 million.

However, Maybank Securities expects the company’s results to “improve significantly” in the coming months, as more public-sector upgrading projects are booked.

What to look out for this week

Shares of Lum Chang Creations could see higher trading activity.

The property revitalisation specialist reported after the market closed on Aug 29 earnings of $12.9 million for the full year ended June 30, up 173 per cent year on year, on the back of a 93 per cent jump in revenue to $113.6 million.

As guided before its July 21 listing on Catalist, the firm has proposed a final dividend of 2.2 cents per share, representing 53.7 per cent of earnings. Shares of Lum Chang Creations have more than doubled since listing at 25 cents per share. They closed at 55 cents on Aug 29.

Yangzijiang Financial will hold its EGM at the Metropolitan YMCA Singapore on Sept 4 at 3pm. Shareholders will be expected to vote for the hiving off of Yangzijiang Financial’s maritime investments and assets into a newly incorporated company, Yangzijiang Maritime Development, to be listed on the Singapore Exchange.

For every Yangzijiang Financial share held, shareholders will get a Yangzijiang Maritime share for free. If approved, this will be the Yangzijiang group’s second spin-off. Yangzijiang Financial is itself a spin-off from Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, which hived off its investment arm to create Yangzijiang Financial in 2022.