Daily Briefing: GDP jumped 4.4% in Q1; Go-Jek to invest US$500m into Singapore and 3 markets

And the 139-unit Landmark Tower was sold for $286m.

From Reuters:

The Singapore economy grew 4.4% YoY and 1.7% QoQ in the first quarter of 2018 thanks to robust factory activity and an improvement in global demand. There was also an upward revision in the services sector.

“That was slower than the 2.1% expansion in the last quarter of 2017, but faster than the government’s initial first quarter estimate, released on April 13, of 1.4% growth.

Despite the moderation in growth, the better than expected numbers prompted MTI to revise its full year growth forecast to 2.5 to 3.5% from the 1.5 to 3.5% announced previously.

‘It shows that they’re a little bit confident going forward,’ OCBC bank chief economist, Selena Ling said, adding that the revision is in line with Singapore’s central bank’s monetary policy change in April, when it tightened for the first time in six years.”

Read more here.

From CNBC:

Indonesia’s ride hailing startup Go-Jek will invest about US$500m into its expansion to four new markets: Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines.

“Initially, Go-Jek will start with ride-hailing before introducing additional services.

Go-Jek started off as a motorbike ride-hailing company and then moved into things like food delivery, groceries and payments. Last year, Go-Jek said it bought three financial technology, or fintech, companies to boost its presence in Indonesia's digital payments sector.

The company's services are used in 50 cities across Indonesia and it is backed by well-known investors like Singapore's Temasek Holdings and Chinese tech giant Tencent.”

Read more here.

From PropertyGuru:

The 139-unit Landmark Tower at Chin Swee Road in District 3 has been sold for $286m to a joint venture company, JLL revealed.

“The purchase price is slightly higher than the reserve price of $285m, and works out to a land rate of about $1,406 psf per plot ratio after factoring in a lease upgrading premium of around $57m.

With this, the owners could expect to receive gross sales proceeds of $1.6m to $4.9m per unit, said JLL regional director Tan Hong Boon.”

Read more here.