Rowsley's third revival act in a decade should prompt caution

WHO doesn't love a company that's on the cusp of getting another shot at reinvigorating itself, huh? Such fascination, albeit premature at this point, led traders to lap up Singapore-listed Rowsley's stock last week after the company unveiled a ground-shifting all-share S$1.9 billion deal to revive its fortunes and move into the largely lucrative healthcare space.

But lest one forgets, this follows five years after the firm, controlled by billionaire Peter Lim, took its chance on a S$580 million transformational plan to inject a huge plot of waterfront land in Malaysia's then-booming Iskandar and one of Singapore's oldest architect firms RSP into the company.

Then, the reverse takeover deal aimed at turning the firm into a real estate bigwig had also galvanised the stock but alas till today, it has yet to live up to its lofty expectations.