If you’re watching your ticker tape for the Singapore Stock Exchange, you might have noticed the trading halt on Sp Comp, otherwise known as Singapore Computer Systems (SCS). Its share price rose from S$0.75 to over S$1.00 within a day.
Their most recent development was to be awarded the National Grid service provisioning project by IDA. The project represented the first ever Software-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service project undertaken in Singapore, with an initial base of 2,400 processors and 16 TB of storage. Recent financials have also appeared to have taken a turn for the better, after a long period of slumber (both financials and stock price).
Something is definitely afoot. A terse statement was released by the company stating that Green Dot Capital, a subsidiary of Temasek which also partially owns Neopets Asia, is evaluating its stake in SCS. Is SCS going private? Or are they paring their stakes? We’ll know soon enough…
Update – NCS to buy SCS?: My rumour mill tells me NCS might be looking to acquire SCS and take them private. A possible merger between these 2 government-linked companies have been bandied around for the longest time. The merger of NCS and SCS might just give us a response to Datacraft, and the whole other bunch of system integrators in the region. At the very least, it’ll be something Singapore can call its own. I still think it’s a silly idea though – both companies aren’t terribly exciting or fantastic imho.
Update 2 – and It is Final! Singtel buys 60% of SCS through NCS for S$1.50 per share or total of S$140 million, from Green Dot Capital, a subsidiary of Temasek. This values the company at approximately S$250 million. Nothing new or terribly exciting here, left pocket to right pocket – I believe this trade sale is directed from the very top, to create an IT services player that is able to lead the charge and fly the Singapore flag overseas. Now on to the next tricky part – post-acquisition INTEGRATION! *eyes NCS+SCS warily*
Related posts:
Raffles City
HackerspaceSG
The Pizza Place
SIM University
