CPF BOARD APPOINTS SINGPOST AS NEW ALTERNATIVE CHANNEL TO SELL DISCOUNTED SINGTEL SHARES
	News Release by: Central Provident Fund Board 24 March 2005 --
	CPF members who are holding Special Discounted Singapore Telecom (SingTel) shares1 will have a new channel if they wish to sell their shares. The CPF Board has appointed Singapore Post (SingPost) as a facilitating agent to provide the service.
	The appointment will be for a period of one year and the new service will start from 1 April 2005. This ties in well with the phasing out of the Authorised Trading Centre (ATC) at DBS Bank on 31 March 2005 which was announced by DBS Bank last year.
	CPF members who wish to sell their SingTel shares via this channel simply need to go to any of the 62 post offices island-wide. They will need to bring along their NRIC. The SingPost officers will help members complete an application form. Thereafter, the SingTel shares transaction will be executed between the second and fourth trading day from the date of the application. The selling price will be based on the prevailing market price when the transaction is executed. SingPost will be partnering Phillip Securities to execute the share transactions. Please refer to Annex A for a flowchart which explains the new process. The proceeds from the sale of the shares will be credited into the members’ CPF Ordinary Accounts on the third trading day after the sale has been executed. A flat fee of $17.95 will be charged for each transaction, regardless of the number of shares sold. This excludes the amount of administrative costs payable to SGX and GST. The fee will be deducted from the sale proceeds. In comparison, the fee charged at the ATC currently is $28.532 for the majority of members with 1,430 shares3 . A comparison of the rates for members with different shareholdings is given at Annex B. The post offices island wide will provide a convenient and familiar venue for members to sell their Discounted SingTel shares. The vast majority of members will also incur lower costs compared to what the ATC currently charge. Members can also choose to sell their SingTel shares directly through brokers. To do so, they will need to have a broking account, or open an account if they do not have one. For more details on the new process, members can refer to the set of FAQs on New Alternative Channel To Sell Special Discounted Singapore Telecom (Singtel) Shares or visit SingPost's website www.singpost.com. Members with enquiries can also call the CPF hotline 1800-227-1188 or SingPost’s hotline at 1605. 1 These refer to SingTel A and SingTel 2 shares. 2 Based on the share price of $2.66 (5-day weighted average price from 10 to 16 March 2005). The figure excludes administrative charges imposed by SGX and GST. 3 Most members were allotted 600 SingTel A shares and 500 SingTel 2 shares, earned 440 bonus shares and the total shares were reduced by 110 (1 for every 14 shares held) during the Capital Reduction Exercise in September 2004.
	ANNEX A
	Workflow on Sale of Discounted SingTel Shares (ST A or ST2) through SingPost
	C* = date CPF member submits the application form to Post Office T* = date Phillip Securities executes sale transaction Transactions are only carried out on working/trading days.
	ANNEX B
	Comparison of Fees Payable for Selling Discounted SingTel Shares For Members With Different Shareholdings
	4 Based on the share price of $2.66 (5-day weighted average price from 10 to 16 March 2005) 5 Members who hold 910 shares or more will incur less costs selling their shares through the SingPost channel compared to the ATC channel. About 70% of the members hold 910 or more shares. 6 This is the minimum number of shares a member has been allocated. A member who was allotted 100 SingTel A shares would have earned 40 bonus shares and the total shares were further reduced by 10 (1 for every 14 shares held) during the Capital Reduction Exercise in September 2004. 7 This is the most common shareholdings. A member who was allotted 600 SingTel A shares and 500 SingTel 2 share would have earned 440 bonus shares and total shares were further reduced by 110 (1 for every 14 shares held) during the Capital Reduction Exercise in September 2004. 8 This is the maximum number of shares a member can have. A member who was allotted 600 SingTel A shares and 700 SingTel 2 share would have earned 520 bonus shares and the total shares were further reduced by 130 (1 for every 14 shares) during the Capital Reduction Exercise in September 2004.