Stocks to watch: ThaiBev, F&N, CapitaLand, CDL, ESR-Reit, SLB Development

THE following companies saw new developments that may affect trading of their securities on Thursday:

Thai Beverage, Fraser and Neave: Thai Beverage's (ThaiBev) indirect associated company Fraser and Neave (F&N) has started operations at Emerald Brewery Myanmar as it seeks to take another crack at the fast-growing market. Emerald Brewery, a joint venture between F&N and local partners, has established a greenfield brewery in Yangon, to brew Chang Beer and distribute it to the rest of the country. F&N's capital investment of US$70 million has been deployed towards building the modern brewery. Shares of ThaiBev closed at S$0.89 on Wednesday, down 1.5 cent or 1.66 per cent, before the announcement. Shares of F&N closed at S$1.73, down one cent or 0.58 per cent.

CapitaLand: In an interview published on Thursday, the retail landlord told The Business Times that it has been weathering the tough retail environment by working more closely with its tenants. Jason Leow, CapitaLand's president of Singapore and international, credits the group's performance to a few strategies, including a loyalty programme as well as mall revamps. Shares of CapitaLand closed at S$3.48 on Wednesday, down three cents or 0.86 per cent.

City Developments Limited (CDL): The property developer has unveiled the revamped Republic Plaza in Raffles Place, following an extensive S$70 million makeover. Its asset enhancement initiative included a makeover of the main lobby, arrival frontage and individual lift lobbies, as well as an expanded retail podium. CDL has also created a smart building mobile app for tenants, and converted a basement unit into an incubator and coworking space for startups and social enterprises. CDL shares closed at S$9.67 on Wednesday, down nine cents or 0.92 per cent.

ESR-Reit: The industrial real estate investment trust (Reit) opened its preferential offering of 98.1 million new units for subscription on Thursday at 9am with an issue price of S$0.510 per unit. Subscription can be made via acceptance forms for new units provisionally alloted to entitled shareholders under the offering, application forms for excess new units, and ATMs of participating banks DBS (including POSB), OCBC and UOB. The offering will close at 5pm on Oct 4 for subscriptions made via acceptance and application forms; applications made through ATMs will close on the same day at 9.30pm.

SLB Development: The Catalist-listed firm is looking to sell a freehold industrial property in Geylang for S$13.5 million. SLB said on Wednesday evening that it had entered into a share sale and purchase agreement with Jun Yuan Holdings to divest Wellprime, its wholly-owned subsidiary which owns the property. The proceeds of the proposed disposal would be used for the discharge of the bank loan related to the property, acquisition of potential development property and for general working capital purposes. The counter was flat at 11.5 Singapore cents on Wednesday.

Trading halt: Mainboard-listed USP Group requested a trading halt on Thursday morning, pending the release of an announcement.