Wednesday, 16 September 2026 · Daily Market Intel

Market Intel Wed, 16 Sept

Hawker who scaled to 30 outlets in two years lost US$590,000.

Lease traps · pump prices · instalment rails

Someone's payday
- Grow to 30 outlets or keep one good stall? Tommy Pang lost US$590,000 finding out — Vulcan Post
  
  Tommy Pang, 29, closed three Singapore food ventures. Shi Nian, a pork leg rice chain, lost about US$390,000 across 30 outlets opened in two years. His eight-stall food court lost about US$200,000 in seven months.
  
  Positive-sum angle: Pang posted the numbers on Instagram while the losses were still running, so the next operator gets the lease maths for free. Landlords, franchise buyers and the food courts that follow all price better when one owner shows the whole ledger.
  
  What's the impact: Singapore and Kuala Lumpur food operators weighing a second site should price the lease before the menu. Pang's three adjoining Eunos stalls run to US$7,900 a month until 2028, on top of a US$79,000 fitout he could not walk away from.
Your costs
- Manila's 50-litre diesel fill costs US$3.44 more this week: Middle East supply lines took another hit — Daily Tribune
  
  Philippine pump prices rose this week: US$0.090 a litre for petrol, US$0.069 for diesel, US$0.074 for kerosene. Jetti president Leo Bellas cited attacks on Middle East shipping and energy infrastructure. Regular diesel now runs US$1.18 to US$1.65 a litre.
  
  Positive-sum angle: A weak peso pays the other side of the same ledger. Cebu exporters, call-centre floors and the households receiving money from abroad all bank the rate that raises the trucker's diesel bill, and that income lands in the same towns.
  
  What's the impact: Manila and Cebu operators quoting delivery on a monthly rate should reprice weekly while the Department of Energy runs its pump review every Tuesday. A 40-litre petrol tank costs US$3.61 (P227) more than last week, and a driver paid per trip absorbs it first.
The tool
- The instalment button on 30,000 checkouts changes hands: Grab buys 60% of Atome for US$1.5 billion — Fintech News Singapore
  
  Grab will pay US$1.5 billion cash for 60% of Atome Financial, the pay-in-instalments checkout used by more than 30,000 brands in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand. Its loan book stands near US$1 billion.
  
  Positive-sum angle: Atome lends to shoppers who never held a credit card, so a small seller closes a sale the banks would have declined. Grab's driver, courier and merchant records widen that pool again, and basket sizes that belonged to department stores reach the single-shop seller.
  
  What's the impact: Merchants on Atome should fix their fee before Jefferson Chen hands the rails over in 2027. The gap sits offline: the corner shops of Jakarta, Manila and Ipoh have no instalment rail, and nobody has built one that underwrites on a wholesaler's order book.

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