IT WAS not very long ago that Courts Singapore was delisted from the SGX. So, many will remember the low exit offers that its owner Singapore Retail Group (SRG) made in 2007 and 2008.

SOMEONE in private equity once told this reporter: 'Good deals are like pretty women. If you don't grab them, they're gone very soon.'

SINGTEL'S BPL (Barclays Premier League) victory is widely seen as the goal it needed to start challenging incumbent StarHub. While that is undoubtedly true for the short term, the ultimate aim behind its willingness to pay top dollar could lie in forcing the policy change that will tilt the balance of pay-TV power in the long run.