Daily Briefing: Sembawang Shopping Centre sold for $248m; Ambassador says Singapore could have lost appetite for TPP revival

And here's how you could be hit by the Fed's higher interest rates.

From Deal Street Asia:

CapitaLand Mall Trust sold Sembawang Shopping Centre for $248m, making it one of the largest sale value achieved in recent years for a stand-alone retail mall in Singapore.

"According to a statement released by CapitaLand Mall, Sembawang Shopping Centre was sold to a joint venture between Lian Beng Group Ltd and Apricot Capital Pte. The mall has an original leasehold tenure of 999 years.

Based on the latest independent valuation, Sembawang Shopping Centre was valued at $126m as at 31 December 2017. The divestment is expected to generate net proceeds of about $245.6m and a net gain of about $119.6m when the transaction is completed by June 2018."

Read more here.

From CNBC via Yahoo! Finance:

According to Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs ambassador-at-large Tommy Koh, the 11 members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership might no longer have the appetite to renegotiate the free trade agreement even as US President Donald Trump has been dropping hints that he is interested in rejoining.

"President Donald Trump has been dropping hints that he may rejoin the Trans-Pacific Partnership if the massive free-trade agreement can be re-negotiated . But the TPP's 11 members may not want to change a newly inked deal that took over a year to close following Washington's exit in January 2017.

Officially known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the agreement will cut tariffs between members and is currently awaiting ratification from six of the 11 nations.

Trump's intentions on the TPP, however, remain unclear. A few days after asking advisors to consider the possibility of re-entering the pact, the president on Tuesday said that he doesn't think the TPP is good for the US."

Read more here.

From DollarsAndSense.sg:

The US Fed raised interest rates by 25 bps in March, marking the sixth increase made since 2015. Currently, interest rates are hovering between a range of 1.50% and 1.75%. How will this American policy affect Singaporeans?

"Further, signalled it would up to two more rate hikes in 2018, and it raised its forecast on continuing rate hikes through to 2020.

While this has happened in the US, we cannot ignore the implications this will have on Singapore and Singaporeans. This is because Singapore manages an exchange rate based monetary policy, pegging the Singapore Dollar to a basket of currencies, of which the US Dollar is a primary component. What this means is that interest rates in Singapore are closely tied to interest rates in the US.

As the increasing interest rates in the US is likely to have an impact on Singapore’s interest rates. We highlight four ways Singaporeans may be affected by the increasing interest rate levels."

Read more here.