The Eras Tour, already the highest-grossing concert ever, further added to its gross takings of more than US$1 billion ($1.34 billion) after the marketing and money-minting machine, otherwise known as Taylor Swift, rolled into the Garden City and sang for six nights.
In the lead-up to the six pulsating nights at the Singapore Sports Hub, there was a bit of Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince. Minister Edwin Tong personally led a multi-agency team from the Singapore government to Los Angeles to woo the Princess to perform here exclusively within the Asean countries, in return for an undisclosed sum of money.
According to the Western media always eager to find clouds in Singapore’s silver linings, Tong caused Bad Blood with our regional neighbours, with Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin openly grumbling about this arrangement and Joey Salceda, a lawmaker from the Philippines, where Swift owns a sizeable fan base, declaring that “this is not what good neighbours do”. Heartbreak for the politicians perhaps, but Swifties still descended from as far as China and India.
Sure, the top-notch infrastructure and security of Singapore, plus how Swift’s mother lived here for 10 years as a child, may have given us an edge as the exclusive Southeast Asian venue.
Tong has debunked how the figure paid by Singapore was “nowhere as high” as what was speculated online. The potential $500 million in direct economic impact, estimated by Maybank economist Erica Tay, plus the indirect marketing benefits to Swifties globally, has given Singapore, with a new moniker Concert City, intangible and valuable benefits as well.
For Singaporeans, their response to these criticisms from abroad was that You Need to Calm Down and Shake it Off. Ever the pragmatic lot, there was even a forum letter to The Straits Times bemoaning why there were no tickets reserved just for locals, or, given how taxpayers are now known to have helped foot the bill, they should be allocated tickets. At least, we managed to get three additional performances after the overwhelming response to initial sales. United Overseas Bank
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As the international media quoted Swifties flying in from the region bemoaning how they had to pay “Singapore” prices of $400 to $1,200 for the tickets, I wonder why no one made a comparison to Eras Tour ticket prices in the West or even Australia and Japan. After all, if $8,000 is a shocking statistic to make a story, what about the C$121,000 (about $119,800) reportedly fetched for a ticket in Toronto, wouldn’t that be beyond anybody’s Wildest Dream? Meanwhile, with the expected consumption boost, let us see how much of a lift Swift will give local hospitality, F&B players, and attraction operators such as Straco Corp.
When I strolled along the Marina Bay waterfront last Friday, Marina Bay Sands was decked out Pretty in Pink, and I had to hustle and elbow my way through legions of fans from around the region with Bejewelled friendship bracelets spending like there is no tomorrow. Perhaps, if there is a spillover to the other integrated resort and some Enchanted fans find their way into the casinos too, the recent sell-off in Genting may be an opportunity to get in.
Fearless
Don’t Blame Me. After all, it is business and fair game. Hong Kong did pay for Lionel Messi not to sit on the bench as it turns out the negative publicity surrounding the debacle has made the football legend persona non grata in China as well. Swift, who just set another Grammy record this year with four albums of the year, and her team were allegedly won over by basic commerce, dollars and cents — something that Team Singapore is familiar with.
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Singapore, by aligning with the interests of MNCs alongside its commitment to free trade, education and infrastructure, created jobs and nurtured a generation of SMEs. The Economic Development Board continues to bring in billions in foreign direct investments as we pursue yet another hopefully successful economic transformation in this uncertain world.
Likewise, few may remember the pioneering spirit of the Monetary Authority of Singapore in the 1980s. With little to lose, Ng Kok Song, runner-up in the last presidential election, reached into the pits of Chicago and twined clearing with a newly formed Simex with the swashbuckling new world of futures, options and derivatives.
The ecosystem that was built outlived the electronic age, and the Singapore Exchange S68 Group (SGX) is today a global powerhouse of equity index, commodities and forex derivatives, anchored on the initial bedrocks of Nikkei 225 trading in partnership with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, long before Osaka and Tokyo set up their own exchanges.
In 2019, Hong Kong did something “un-neighbourly” — as what Singapore was accused of with Swift. It paid a princely sum to buy over the licensing of MSCI indices in a bid to pull the rug of trading volume from under Singapore. In what was considered legendary for those in the industry, SGX managed to mount a successful defence and kept billions of dollars in liquidity traded and cleared within the alternative suite of FTSE products traded here.
The algorithmic traders, hedge funds and global capital are staying footloose and fancy-free, which was the title of last week’s column. However, over that Cruel Summer, SGX and Singapore fought and won. The business and jobs were kept here. That growth engine still underpins SGX’s almost 20x P/E multiple — a discount to other global derivative exchanges like the CME — as local investors only think about the Champagne Problems in our safe and boring stock market. It lacks the froth to bubble over from time to time, ironically as local investors seek pastures further afield (with much red ink shed dabbling in Hong Kong and China), while our agencies do their utmost to bring the business here. Perhaps, we should cut off these Illicit Affairs overseas and stick to The 1 at home!
Long Live
A slew of companies, especially mid- and small-caps, lamented the Feb 28 announcement shifting towards mandatory climate-related reporting for listed and large non-listed companies, with obligations for some to begin disclosing in line with IFRS International Sustainability Board standards by 2025.
This followed the Sustainability Reporting Advisory Committee set up by SGX RegCo and Acra recommendations which included feedback from a variety of stakeholders such as SGListcos, a grouping representing Singapore-listed companies that I chair. A phased approach till 2029 will follow, with the experience of listed and large non-listed companies to be assessed before deciding to extend climate reporting obligations to the longer tail of smaller companies.
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To a large extent, listed companies have had some experience with voluntary reporting and “comply or explain”, which were stepped up over the years. The sceptics routinely question if this process helps them attract capital, or merely introduces costs. Aside from the fact that it is the responsible thing to do to collectively reduce our carbon footprint, and not just for reporting obligations or to meet Singapore’s 2030 and 2050 goals, it is really about securing our future generations. A good philanthropist friend explains his interest in funding climate and biodiversity projects simply: what is the point of accumulating wealth per se if the planet is uninhabitable for his grandchildren, or if society is divided so that it becomes unsafe.
While the pool of ESG funds available to companies has supposedly grown globally, the risks to companies at present are less of an opportunity cost forgone, but occur when asset managers exclude as they too as signatories of PRI (Principles of Responsible Investing), or their end-investor clients demand that they exclude. This has been seen in the case of many coal projects — and hence the need for just transitioning and transition financing to help developing countries tide through.
More recently, Norway’s Norges Bank, the country’s US$1.6 trillion sovereign wealth fund, dumped its stakes in Straits Times Index component stocks Jardine Matheson Holdings J36 (JMH) and Jardine Cycle & Carriage C07 , and also Indonesia-listed PT Astra International. According to its 2022 filings, Norges held stakes of US$135 million in JMH and US$60 million between Jardine C&C and Astra. They attributed this to the “unacceptable risk of the company contributing to or being responsible for severe environmental damage” as recommended by its ethics council.
The issue is over the Martabe gold mine in Indonesia, which, environment groups say, has been threatening the habitat of the world’s most endangered great ape — the Tapanuli orangutan — with fewer than 800 of this species identified living in the wild back in 2017. Although the company said it had conducted comprehensive surveys around the mine and that a planned expansion of the mine was limited to “low-impact exploration” with any further expansion contingent on an assessment by biodiversity experts, the sovereign wealth fund was not ready to Tolerate It.
Irrespective of whether Mighty Earth — the NGO behind the Mastermind lobbying Norges, banks and other financial institutions — or the result of ancient Karma by a storied company which traded opium in China in its early days before its reincarnation into a responsible conglomerate, Tis the Damn Season and investors and companies have to be Ready For It where Delicate matters in these Swift new Eras require a new Love Story to unfold.
Chew Sutat retired from Singapore Exchange after 14 years as a member of its executive management team. During his watch, the exchange transformed from an Asian gateway into a global multi-asset exchange, and he was awarded FOW’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He serves as chairman of the Community Chest Singapore
