Stocks to watch: Halcyon Agri, Keppel, property stocks

HALCYON Agri Corporation Limited on Monday said it will acquire Shanghai-listed Sinochem International's natural rubber business, including its 51 per cent majority stake in Singapore-listed GMG Global Ltd, trading business, and China and Malaysia processing factories.

Following completion of the transactions - subject to approval of Halycon Agri shareholders - Sinochem will be the majority shareholder of Halcyon Agri, which will be the holding company of the expanded group.

Sinochem will acquire a 30.07 per cent shareholding in Halcyon Agri for S$0.75 per share in cash and make a mandatory general offer to all shareholders of Halcyon Agri at the same price.

Halcyon Agri shares last traded at S$0.73 last Wednesday. It has requested a lift in the trading halt of its stocks ahead of the market's opening on Monday.

Keppel Offshore & Marine's rig-building arm Keppel Fels said on Sunday it has delivered the first two of five jackup rigs on order from Mexico's Grupo R, delivery of which had been deferred on Grupo R's request along with two others the Mexican player has on order with Keppel Fels under an US$820 million contract announced in March 2013.

The four jackups were originally due to be delivered from the second to the fourth quarters of 2015.

Property stocks may disappoint this week, following the expected announcement in Budget 2016 that it is too early to relax property cooling measures.

Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat had said on Thursday: "Based on the price level and current market conditions, our assessment is that it is premature to relax these measures."

Private home prices have fallen 8.4 per cent since their 2013 peak.