Daily Briefing: Exxon to cut 7% of local workforce; EPS, Schulte Group back autonomous drone developer F-drones

And freehold semi-detached house near Orchard Road on sale for $10.9m.

From Reuters:

Exxon Mobil Corp. plans to cut its workforce in Singapore, home to its largest oil refining and petrochemical complex, by about 7% amidst the “unprecedented market conditions” resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, it said on Wednesday.

About 300 positions out of 4,000 current jobs will be impacted by the end of 2021, the company said in a statement.

The Singapore layoffs come weeks after Exxon announced its plan to close its 72-year-old Altona refinery in Australia and convert it to an import terminal. The top US oil producer, once America’s most valuable company, posted a historic annual loss for 2020 after the coronavirus pandemic slashed energy demand.

Exxon’s announcement also follows European major Royal Dutch Shell’s decision in November to cut 500 staff and halve its crude processing capacity in Singapore as part of a global strategy to reduce carbon emissions.

Read more here. 

From e27:

F-drones, a Singapore-based developer of large-scale autonomous drones for maritime logistics, has raised an undisclosed amount in seed investment, led by ship management company Eastern Pacific Shipping.

The round also saw participation from Germany-based ship management firm Schulte Group (which invested through its venture arm Innoport), besides SEEDS Capital, Entrepreneur First, Orient Ventures, Superangel (Estonian early-stage investor), and a few unnamed Singaporean angels.

The funding will enable F-drones to form more technology and commercial partnerships and hire global talent in aircraft design, avionics, autonomy, and computer vision, it said in a statement.

F-drones was started in 2019 by Yeshwanth Reddy and Nicholas Ang with a mission to provide 24×7 commercial Beyond-Vision-Line-Of-Sight (BVLOS) drone deliveries to ships.

Unlike Visual-Line-of-Sight flights, which are operated within the pilot’s sightline, BVLOS flights are flown beyond the visible range, giving the company’s drones an added advantage.

Read more here.

From PropertyGuru:

A two-storey semi-detached house at 35 Jalan Arnap has been put up for sale, with offers expected to stand at $10.98m or $2,072 per sq ft, revealed marketing agent Knight Frank Singapore.

The District 10 property has a site area of 492.2 sq m (5,298 sq ft) and is zoned for “Residential, two-storey Semi-Detached” use under the 2019 Master Plan.

The freehold property sits slightly above road level and enjoys an 11 m frontage onto Jalan Arnap.

It’s located near the Orchard Road shopping belt with the future Orchard Boulevard MRT station just 300 m away. Knight Frank noted that the immediate vicinity is “predominantly residential in nature, comprising landed housing, as well as high-end condominium and apartment developments.”

Read more here.