CONGLOMERATES have long been cursed with a discount as investors dislike how disparate businesses can be lumped confusingly together. In the case of United Engineers (UE), one of the oldest conglomerates in Singapore, this state of affairs is almost at an end.

With the sale of its Nasdaq-listed subsidiary MFlex to a Chinese buyer earlier this month, UE has become a pure property play holding on to freehold and long-leasehold assets in central or near-central locations.

Thus streamlined, the company, which had built historic Singapore landmarks like the Old Supreme Court Building and Cavenagh Bridge, is ready to be sold or packaged with another entity if necessary.