Daily Briefing: Singapore probes firms that sold luxury goods to North Korea; UOB is on a hiring spree

And this popular Singapore mall is attempting an en bloc sale for $1.1b.

From Reuters:

Singapore is was investigating two local companies accused of supplying luxury goods to North Korea in violation of U.N. sanctions.

"Citing a leaked draft of a U.N. report, British broadcaster BBC said earlier this week the two firms were OCN and T-Specialist, sister companies that share the same director.

'The Singapore authorities are aware of these cases and we are in correspondence with the U.N. Panel on them,' Singapore’s foreign affairs ministry said in a statement."

Read more here.

From PropertyGuru:

Popular IT mall Sim Lim Square is attempting to go en bloc and the owners are asking for a price of $1.1b, revealed marketing agent SLP International Property Consultants.

"This makes the building, which was completed in 1987, Singapore’s first full commercial prime city centre en bloc sale. Close to 60% by share value of the owners attended the meeting, of which an overwhelming 86% and 97% voted in favour of both the apportionment and collective sale agreement.

SLP has been working with and advising the collective sale committee, and explaining the important issues on the en bloc process to the owners in several town hall sessions over the last six months."

Read more here.

From eFinancialCareers:

UOB is on a tear as it is aggressively recruiting in the Singapore banking sector. This has resulted in its headcount rising by almost 300 compared in 2017 with 2016.

"Setio Darmawan, a veteran HSBC technologist who was latterly its chief information officer for Indonesia, has moved to UOB as the Singaporean firm continues its digital hiring drive.

Darmawan joined the Republic’s third largest local bank at executive director level earlier this month, relocating from Jakarta to Singapore in the process, according to his public profile.

This increase was largely fuelled by hiring techies like Darmawan. The bank is still taking on more engineers, analysts, digital designers, architects, project managers and data scientists, Susan Hwee, head of group technology and operations, told us previously. About 4,500 people work in Hwee’s department."

Read more here.