Daily Briefing: Singapore's tainted bunkers bolster inquiries for UAE's marine fuel; Hong Kong billionaire's firm eyeing to dual list in SGX

And Grab says fake-booking claims from Philippine rival ‘malicious'.

From Reuters:

With tainted marine fuel found from the world’s largest ship refuelling hub, sources said that Singapore traders face quality claims whilst Dubai-based bunker fuel traders receive more inquiries amidst woes from Singapore’s bunkers.

“In Singapore, it’s a contamination issue that makes the fuel like sludge so it clogs all the purifiers and causes big damage to the filters of the engine,” the Dubai trader said.

Singapore-based marine fuel surveyor and consulting firm Maritec Pte Ltd last week warned clients that six samples of ship fuel sold in Singapore had “resulted in severe sludging at centrifuges, clogged pipelines, overwhelmed fuel filters”.

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From Bloomberg Asia:

Hongkong insurance firm FWD Group owned by billionaire Richard Li is eyeing to list in Singapore with a dual-class structure.

The insurer has consulted Singapore Exchange Ltd. officials about the possibility, the people said, asking not to be identified as the deliberations are private.

A Singapore listing of FWD, which manages more than $26.6 billion of assets, would be a coup for the Southeast Asian exchange as it seeks to grab a greater share of deals from competing financial centres. The bourse last month joined Hong Kong in approving regulations that allow companies to list with dual-class shares.

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From Tech in Asia:

Grab denied that it was behind ‘phantom bookings’ for Philippine-based taxi-hailing platform Micab as Grab Philippines country head Brian Cu said that their internal investigations found that the allegations were “untrue” and “have malicious intent.”

Eddie Ybanez, CEO of Philippine taxi-hailing service Micab, alleged last week that his company’s drivers had been hit with “several thousand” fake bookings.
Singaporean ride-hailing app Ryde said last month that its drivers had been affected by a number of fake bookings, which it had traced to IP addresses associated with office complexes where Grab is an occupant.

Read more here.