Daily Briefing: NOL sale boosts Singapore’s hub ambitions; Singapore builders overleveraged

And here’s the deal on smartphone insurance in Singapore.

CMA CGM SA’s S$3.38 billion ($2.4 billion) takeover of Neptune Orient Lines Ltd. offers two advantages for Singapore: It allows state investment firm Temasek Holdings Pte to get rid of a money-losing business, while furthering the city-state’s ambitions as a shipping hub. The French company, the world’s third-biggest shipping company by capacity, offered S$1.30 a share in cash, 6.1 percent more than Neptune Orient’s last closing price of S$1.225 Friday. Read more here.

Singapore’s builders are entering 2016 with another wall of debt coming due, falling confidence and declining earnings. After a record S$9.6 billion ($6.8 billion) of bonds were repaid this year, the industry faces S$6.4 billion of maturities next year, S$2.3 billion in 2017 and S$7.4 billion in 2018, according to Bloomberg-compiled data. Contractors Ley Choon Group Holdings Ltd. and Swee Hong Ltd. are restructuring their debt with lenders. Find out more here.

Apparently 9 out of 10 Singaporeans have access to a smartphone, according to a survey done by Deloitte's Global Technology, Media and Telecommunications team. Looking at how Singaporeans camped out despite the haze to queue for the new iPhone 6S, you can easily see our obsession with smartphones. With mobile phones becoming 'smarter', more advanced and also pricier, you have to wonder, is it time to get a smartphone insurance? Read more here.

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