Top 100 brands lost a staggering $1.78 bn in value

Singapore's real estate brands collectively suffered the worst value erosion in 2012 but other sectors were not much better off.

In an assessment, Brand Finance said that the reducers and dropouts in its annual Top 100 Brands rankings saw a combined value erosion of $1.78 billion.

Three real estate firms took some of the hardest hits in brand value decline. Guocoland had its brand value reduced $397 million, the second highest drop in the Top 100 brand list behind Singapore Airlines' $539 million brand value decline. UIC and CapitaLand also dropped their brand values by $80 million and $65 million, respectively.

"There sems to be a slight skew towards the real estate industry but overall, there is no specific segment or industry or sector where brand value was seen to be eroded. The value erosion was present across industry and segments such as transportation, marine & ship building, airlines, stock exchange, Engineering /R&D, home furnishings and real estate services. This indicates reduction in brand value was due to brand management practices as appose to market conditions effecting particular sectors," said Brand Finance.

Rounding out the Top 10 highest decliners in brand value for 2012 are: SIA Engineering (3rd at $397 million), Sembcorp Marine (4th at $144 million), SGX (5th at $138 million), SMRT (6th at $109 million), HTL International (7th at $96 million) and ST Engineering (9th at $68 million).