Under The Radar

Today we’re going to talk about the people behind the flats and apartments we live in – the people building our homes that is.  Construction firms, as we know, have been hit by supply chain disruptions and a manpower crunch during the pandemic.  While things are looking up as work resumes and supply chain bottlenecks ease, industry players continue to face challenges such as working with pre-pandemic contracts that do not account for higher material costs. So how are construction companies navigating choppy waters, and how are they adjusting their business strategy to remain financially viable? Let’s pose these questions to our guest Straits Construction. Starting small in 1969, Straits Construction is a builder that got its first breakthrough in 1982, when it built its first Housing and Development Board of HDB project at Serangoon Avenue 4.  Since then, the firm has taken on more public and private projects. Some past projects include the Royal Square at Novena, which houses Courtyard by Marriot Hotel. On Under the Radar, Drive Time’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian caught up with Kenneth Loo, Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer, Straits Construction Singapore  for more.

From wheat, sugar, cashew, to cotton and even rice. Today we’re going to take you through a company that specialises in the physical buying and selling of such agri-commodities.  Incorporated in 1990, Agrocorp International is a leading integrated agri-commodities and food solutions provider, with a strong presence in emerging markets like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and India.  It also secured sustainability loans from the International Finance Corporation to sustain the flow of calorie-rich staples to Bangladesh. But what bearing does this have on Agrocorp’s financials? Away from South Asia, the firm established an upstream presence by investing into pulse processing plants in Canada and Australia. But what are the reasons for locating the facilities in these developed markets?  Meanwhile, Agrocorp also moved into the plant-based meat alternatives scene by developing the first plant-based, nut free cheese range in Singapore with support from the Singapore Institute of Technology and Enterprise Singapore.  To what extent have such moves to diversify reaped tangible benefits for the firm? On Under the Radar, Drive Time’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Vishal Vijay, Director, Strategic Investments, Agrocorp International.

The insurance industry is in focus today. Chartered in Canada back in 1865, Sun Life is a financial services organisation with over 118,000 advisors and offices in 27 markets. It has also been present in Asia since the 1890s.  The firm has a reputation for serving high net worth insurance markets and has CAD 1.33 trillion in assets under management as at the end of last year. Sun Life now sees strong growth potential in the high net worth insurance business in Asia, particularly in Singapore due to the country’s reputation as a global wealth hub.  But what does it mean in terms of investments put into its Singapore business?  Also – what types of insurance products are in demand among Sun Life target customers and what does it mean for Sun Life’s Singapore branch in terms of product offerings?  Meanwhile, the firm collaborated with high net worth specialist brokers who work with private banks and family offices in a move to sink its roots into the local high net worth insurance market. But how effective is this as a customer acquisition strategy?  On Under the Radar, Drive Time’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Michael Wei, Chief Partnership and Marketing Officer, Sun Life Singapore.

What comes to mind when you think of delivering newborn babies? Well, the baby comes out, and the umbilical cord is clamped, cut and discarded. As we know today, cord blood is a very good source of blood stem cells and can be used in transplants to treat blood disorders and cancers.  So instead of throwing the umbilical cord away just like that, more parents are requesting to harvest cord blood from their newborn’s umbilical cord during delivery.  According to Health Hub, the blood is stored in liquid nitrogen tanks at about negative 180 degrees Celsius at a cord blood bank, and can be retrieved for use by the newborn when he or she grows up, or even by the newborn’s siblings.  But how do cord blood banks work exactly? What is the difference between some of the terms we hear, say private versus public cord blood banks? And to what extent is cord blood banking a business that generates long-term recurring revenue?  On Under the Radar, Drive Time’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to  Tan Poh Lan, Group CEO and Executive Director, Cordlife. Founded in 2001, the SGX-listed firm is a pioneer in private cord blood banking in Asia. It operates the region’s largest network of cord blood banks and is an industry leader in markets such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Indonesia. 

It’s all about digital assets today. Founded on Swiss and Singaporean heritage in 2017, our guest is Singtel-backed startup Sygnum, which touts itself as “the world’s first regulated digital asset bank”.  The company was awarded with its Swiss banking and securities dealer license in 2019 by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority or FINMA.  While the firm is not licensed as a bank here in Singapore, its Singapore arm Sygnum Singapore operates under a Capital Markets Services license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore to help accredited and institutional investors tap the digital asset markets.  More recently, Sygnum Singapore also received in-principle approval of the Major Payments Institution license from the MAS. That’s a move said to position the firm to provide regulated crypto brokerage service in future.  Quite a bit of jargon to get through, but at the heart of our conversation is this question – what exactly are the products and services offered by the firm and how do they differ by geography? Meanwhile, the firm has on a group level participated on projects to tokenise paintings by artists such as Picasso – but how important is this as a business vertical for the firm?  On Under the Radar, Drive Time’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Gerald Goh, Co-founder and CEO, Sygnum Singapore.

Purpose built workers and student accommodation – that’s what we’re going to talk about on the segment today.  Headquartered in Singapore, our guest Centurion Corporation owns, develops and manages quality specialised accommodation assets.  This includes Purpose Built Worker Accommodation in Singapore and Malaysia, and Purpose Built Student Accommodation across Australia, South Korea, the UK and the US.  As at the end of March last year, the firm offers a home-away from home to more than 64,000  (64,300) residents across 17 worker accommodation and 19 student accommodation.  But what is the number like right now given that the company reported their financial results not too long ago?  The SGX-listed firm is also withdrawing its secondary share listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchanges for what it all “reasons of cost and utility”, but what will the withdrawal mean for the firm financially? On Under the Radar, Drive Time’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to David Phey, Head of Investor Relations at Centurion Corporation.

It is all about art toys and figurines for today. Founded in 2010, our guest POP MART is a culture and entertainment company.  The firm creates art toys and collectible pieces sold through its network of retail stores or vending machines.  POP MART made its debut on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2020 with a market capitalisation of US$12.5 billion at the end of its first trading day. Aside from manufacturing and selling toys, the firm also puts a focus on developing artists that provide intellectual property that can be made into toys, figurines or other products.  To this end, the company works with renowned international designers such as Kenny Wong for its iconic character called Molly. If you are a collector, you would probably know of Molly as a little girl with emerald eyes and pouting lips, or simply one of the firm’s best selling characters.  Beyond working with artists, POP MART also collaborated with global brands such as Disney, Universal Studios and Sanrio to come up with co-branded products.  Question is – how does the firm navigate its relationship with designers and corporates given that they are considered as the lifeblood of the company? The company is on the charm offensive to expand internationally by opening retail stores around the world, but it is also diversifying away from toy manufacturing at the same time.  To what extent do these moves contradict each other? And what is POP MART’s grand plan for the future? On Under the Radar, Drive Time’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Kevin Zhang, Head of Strategic Partnership, POP MART.

You might have heard of computer coding. But have you heard of low code?  If you haven’t, low code refers to a process of developing software that minimises the lines of computer codes that developers need to write manually. It might be a little hard to visualise, but think of low coding as the pre-fabrication of apartments. Computer codes are packaged into drag and drop icons just like individual pre-fab modules.  All that software developers need to do to build an app is mix and match these icons, , or pre-fab modules, in the way that they want. And all the action happens at a construction site, or a user interface, that is highly intuitive to the man in the street.  Low code is important to the tech industry because it democratises app developers for people with little experience in this field. It also allows organisations to introduce new enterprise software quickly without hiring a large number of experienced developers.  But how will Generative AI shake things up, now that computer codes can be produced from language text prompts? On Under the Radar, Drive Time’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed the question to Leonard Tan, Regional Director, Singapore and Greater China Region at low code solutions provider OutSystems.  Founded in 2001, OutSystems’ firm’s low code platform serves thousands of active customers in 87 countries and across 22 industries, including Japanese pharmaceutical giant Takeda and Indonesian telecommunications operator Telkomsel.

It’s all about music and concerts today. With a legacy that spans over 200 years, Warner Music Group, brings together songwriters, artists and entrepreneurs that are moving entertainment culture across the world.  The firm has a recorded music division that operates in over 70 countries via a network of affiliate and licensees.  It includes a number of renowned labels including 300 Entertainment and Atlantic, and manages some of the biggest A-listers in the world of music including Coldplay, Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran.  Aside from managing singers and bands and distributing music, the firm also has a music publishing arm called Warner Chappell Music where it holds over one million copyrights of songs across genres.  But how exactly does an entertainment company like Warner Music Group operate? What is the difference between the operations of the published and recorded music departments?  What strategic value does the artists and repertoire (or A&R) department, which is responsible for scouting recording artists and nurturing them, bring to the table for Warner Music Group? Also – the Group recently reported improved streaming driven by a stronger release slate, but what is the situation here in Singapore? How does the recent concert boom mean for music distribution? On Under the Radar, Drive Time’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Gerald Ang, Managing Director, Warner Music Singapore.

It’s that time of the year again where we see and hear fighter jets soar in the skies in celebration of National Day.  But if you want to be a Top Gun fighter in Singapore without leaving the ground – a trip to a retail flight simulator centre may be one of your better bets.  Our guest for today is WingsAcademy.sg, which prides itself as Singapore’s latest retail flight simulator centre offering simulator experiences in fighter jets such as the F-16C Fighting Falcon and commercial jets like the Boeing 737-800.  The company says it is not only targeting pilot trainees looking to get their flying licences as their customers, but also corporate clients looking for aviation themed leadership and management training programmes.  These corporate programmes can cost about S$12,000 for one person. So how lucrative is the business of flight simulators given that firms seem to operate with high fixed costs of acquiring the simulators and relatively lower overheads?  Meanwhile, Fortune Business Insights estimates the global flight simulator market – which looks at simulator providers servicing airlines – to grow from US$4.89 billion in 2023 to US$6.99 billion in 2030. But how big do industry players expect the market for retail flight simulators to be? On Under the Radar, Drive Time’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian sat down with Fabian Lim, Founder and CEO of WingsAcademy.sg and Mark Lim, Co-founder at WingsAcademy.sg for more.