Daily Briefing: Property agencies move towards mega mergers; Singapore's oil problem is barely over

And here's how bike share firms could stay in business.

From PropertyGuru:

The property agency industry has been abuzz with recent mergers and how technology is disrupting the way agents do business.

It started in June when PropNex Realty announced a merger with Dennis Wee Group (DWG) to form the largest agency in Singapore with close to 7,000 agents.

Two more followed in August – OrangeTee and Edmund Tie and SLP and Scotia.

The newly formed OrangeTee & Tie will comprise more than 4,000 agents, making it the third largest agency and pushing it ahead of Huttons Asia with over 3,000 agents.

SLP Scotia will have a combined strength of 800 agents and will receive a cash injection of $3 million to grow the business.

Read more here.

From Bloomberg Finance:

The price of crude may have stabilized, but the same can’t be said for the industries in Singapore whose fortunes depend on oil.

Nam Cheong Ltd. said on Monday it filed an application on Oct. 6 for a moratorium on its $424 million of debt, just a week after Ezion Holdings Ltd. sought to restructure its $2 billion of debt. The two cases highlight enduring pain from the slump that took crude close to $25 a barrel last year.

The fallout has been concentrated in Singapore, an energy industry hub. There have been more than S$1.4 billion ($1 billion) of local bond defaults since late 2015, largely by companies providing offshore vessel services to major oil explorers, Bloomberg data shows. Commodity trader Noble Group has also sold assets and obtained waivers from lenders to ease a cash crunch.

Read more here.

From DollarsAndSense.sg via Yahoo!:

It is not surprisingly that demand for dockless rental bicycles have grown reasonably, as biking transforms from just being a viable commuting alternative to become a staple last mile transport for people to travel home, to work, and everywhere else.

Whether future demand for rental bicycles after geo-fencing technology is implemented will be as strong today is uncertain, but it is not hard to imagine that if costs can be managed, there will be enough users for the few operators to remain in business, perhaps eventually with some consolidation.

Read more here.

Photo by XEON - Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0