good input from someone .......................

A Singapore stockbroking house property analyst said: " Right from the start, Sincere Group was not in a comfortable situation it was highly geared. The Chinese government has been tightening on developers' debt and I think the ' Three Red Lines' may be the last straw.

 

" There are two ways to cure Sincere' s high debt. One is to divest its assets, which is difficult at this point in time because they might not get the value they want. The other is for Sincere to get a cash injection to stay afloat so that the covenants are in line. For this, it will probably turn to its shareholders including CDL. Maybe Leng Peck feels this would be throwing good money after bad."

 

As for M& C, CDL noted that 2020 has been a difficult year for the hospitality and tourism sector.

 

In the first half of this year, the group' s hotel operations segment recorded a substantial pre-tax loss of S$208.2 million, which included S$33.9 million of impairment losses in view of the coronavirus pandemic.

 

M& C, which owns, manages and operates over 145 hotels globally, was delisted from the London bourse in October 2019 after CDL completed its privatisation exercise.

 

Market watchers note that Mr Kwek Leng Beng is not shy of being seen as having a revolving-door policy or high turnover of chief executives at M& C.

 

" My feeling is there may be some disagreement over the appointment and the frequent changing of CEOs at M& C, on the way things are being run. My suspicion is that maybe Leng Peck wants somebody to have a runway over a period of time, which Leng Beng may not want," said the stockbroking house analyst.