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July 23 (Reuters) – Singapore Exchange (SGXL.SI) may see increased trading volumes of up to 10 percent if it does away with the lunchtime break, chief executive Magnus Bocker said on Friday.
But the exchange is still in talks with brokers and it was too early to say when continuous trading will be implemented, he told the Singapore Foreign Correspondents Association.
(Reporting by Kevin Lim; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
SINGAPORE, July 22 (Reuters) – Singapore state investor Temasek [TEM.UL] priced its S$1 billion ($725.7 million) 40-year benchmark bond, the longest-ever maturity for Singapore dollar-denominated debt, at a yield of 4.2 percent, the firm said on Thursday.
Proceeds from the bond issue will be used by Temasek and its investment holding companies “to fund their ordinary course of business,” the state investor said.
“This first 40-year Sing dollar Temasek Bond was issued in response to enquiries from Singapore-based investors who were interested in Sing dollar bonds with tenors longer than 30 years,” Temasek’s treasury head Alyssa Ong said in a statement.
DBS and Standard Chartered were joint lead managers and bookrunners for the bonds, which are rated AAA by Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s. [ID:nWNA6123]
Singapore’s longest-dated government bond currently is a 20-year security that will mature in March 2027. The bond closed at a yield of 2.90 percent on Wednesday.
Temasek’s latest bond, regarded by many investors as quasi-sovereign because of the firm’s importance to Singapore, is the most-recent example of governments and companies in Asia tapping the longer end of the yield curve.
China last year issued 20 billion yuan ($2.95 billion) worth of 50-year government bonds at a yield of 4.3 percent to deepen the local bond market.
Temasek earlier this week sold 700 million pounds worth of 12- and 30-year sterling-denominated bonds — its first in the British currency — to diversify its funding sources. [ID:nSGE66I08I] (Reporting by Kevin Lim; Editing by Valerie Lee) ((kevin.lim@thomsonreuters.com; +65 6403 5663; Reuters Messaging: kevin.lim.reuters.com@reuters.net)) ((If you have a query or comment on this story, send an email to news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com)) ($1=1.378 Singapore Dollar) ($1=6.776 Yuan)
SINGAPORE, July 20 (Reuters) -Singapore’s Amara Holdings (AMRA.SI) said on Tuesday it will develop its first hotel in Thailand.
The hotel will have 272 rooms and will be located in Bangkok.
Amara did not say how much the hotel will cost.
(Reporting by Charmian Kok; Editing by Kevin Lim)
July 19 (Reuters) – Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings [TEM.UL] is looking to sell sterling-denominated bonds, its first issue in the British currency, sources with knowledge of the deal told Reuters.
Temasek could do a benchmark issue — which in industry terms is at least $500 million equivalent, sources said.
UBS (UBSN.VX), Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE), HSBC (HSBA.L) are likely to be lead managers for the sale, sources said.
Temasek and the banks declined to comment.
“They see sterling as an additional pool of capital for them,” said one of the sources who spoke to Reuters.
(Reporting by Saeed Azhar and Kevin Lim; additional reporting by Saikat Chatterjee in Hong Kong)
July 19 (Reuters) – U.S. fund manager Templeton, one of Parkway Holdings’ (PARM.SI) largest institutional shareholders, has cut its stake in the Singapore healthcare firm following a series of sales earlier this month.
Malaysian state investor Khazanah and Indian healthcare giant Fortis (FOHE.BO), which each own around 25 percent of Parkway, are currently tussling for control of the Singapore firm.
Templeton now owns 4.97 percent of Parkway, down from 5.04 percent previously, after selling about 357,000 shares between July 8 and July 14, Parkway said in a disclosure to the Singapore Exchange.
For a factbox on Parkway, please click [ID:nSGE6600DM]
(Reporting by Kevin Lim)
July 9 (Reuters) – Total assets managed by fund managers in Singapore rose 40 percent to S$1.21 trillion ($877 billion) last year, above the pre-crisis peak of S$1.17 trillion in 2007, the central bank said on Friday.
Asia Pacific continued to be the main target for investments by Singapore-based managers, accounting for 61 percent of assets under management in 2009, Monetary Authority of Singapore Deputy Managing Director Ong Chong Tee said at an investment forum.
About 51 percent of the funds were invested in stocks, while bonds accounted for 16 percent, the central bank said. (Reporting by Kevin Lim; Editing by Jan Dahinten)
HONG KONG/SINGAPORE, July 6 (Reuters) – Some HSBC Holdings (HSBA.L) clients are being investigated by the U.S. Justice Department on suspicion of failing to disclose accounts in India or Singapore, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing three people it did not identify.
Letters from the Justice Department sent to HSBC (0005.HK) clients did not mention the bank by name, but were directed to people with accounts at the bank, the report added, citing unnamed lawyers.
Gareth Hewett, HSBC’s spokesman in Hong Kong, declined to comment on the case, but said the bank “fully supports government moves for appropriate disclosure by its citizens”, and that it “does not condone or assist tax evasion”.
Two sources familiar with the matter in Singapore said there did not appear to be any concerted investigation by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service into HSBC accounts in the city-state.
Earlier this year, the U.S. government charged several former wealthy clients of UBS AG (UBSN.VX) after the Swiss bank last year admitted to actively helping U.S. citizens evade taxes overseas. Two clients of HSBC were also charged by U.S. prosecutors with concealing $45 million in unreported bank accounts. [ID:nN15258806] (Reporting by Kelvin Soh and Kevin Lim; Editing by Chris Lewis)
July 1 (Reuters) – India’s Fortis Healthcare (FOHE.BO) unveiled a general offer to buy shares in Singapore hospital operator Parkway Holdings (PARM.SI) for S$3.80 a share.
The bid, which values Parkway at S$4.32 billion ($3.1 billion), is 2 Singapore cents higher than the S$3.78 per share offered by Malaysian state investor Khazanah under its partial offer, and versus Parkway’s last closing price of S$3.57.
Fortis will have to pay S$3.23 billion for shares of Parkway that it does not already own.
The offer is conditional on Fortis getting at least 50 percent of the Singapore firm.
Shares in Parkway were halted for trading on Thursday. ($1=1.398 Singapore Dollar) (Reporting by Kevin Lim; Editing by Anshuman Daga)
June 29 (Reuters) – Singapore’s Wilmar International (WLIL.SI) and U.S.-based Elevance Renewable Sciences will build a refinery in Indonesia to produce biofuels and oleochemicals, the two firms said on Tuesday.
Non-Cyclical Consumer Goods
The refinery, which is expected to be ready in 2011, will have an initial capacity of 180,000 metric tonnes a year and can be expanded to produce 360,000 metric tonnes of biofuels and oleochemicals annually.
The joint venture facility will be located within Wilmar’s upcoming manufacturing complex in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city after Jakarta.
Wilmar, the world’s largest listed palm oil firm, and Elevance, a U.S. biotech start-up, did not say how much the refinery will cost. (Reporting by Harry Suhartono, editing by Kevin Lim)
June 15 (Reuters) – Overseas Union Enterprise (OVES.SI), a Singapore-listed property and hotel firm, said on Tuesday it will not go ahead with a proposed convertible bond sale due to current market conditions.
Cyclical Consumer Goods
It also said its shareholder, Golden Concord will sell 18 million OUE shares at S$11.50 a share. (Reporting by Kevin Lim; Editing by Saeed Azhar)
June 8 (Reuters) – RBS Coutts, the private banking arm of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L), said on Tuesday it has appointed Norman Villamin to the newly created role of head of investment strategy for Asia.
Financials
Villamin, who is based in Singapore, joined RBS Coutts from Citi Private Bank where he specialised in asset allocation and multi-asset class research and advice.
Private banks, in particular Standard Chartered (STAN.L) and Deutsche (DBKGn.DE), are hiring aggressively in Asia and poaching staff from one another in a bid to tap the region’s growing ranks of millionaires.
RBS Coutts said Villamin’s appointment “is the latest in a series of senior hires RBS Coutts has made over the last few months to support the bank’s growth aspirations in Asia.”
(Reporting by Kevin Lim; Editing by Saeed Azhar)
BEIJING, April 2 (Reuters) – Chinese President Hu Jintao told U.S. President Barack Obama he wants healthy ties between the two nations, while stressing Beijing’s sensitivity about Taiwan and Tibet, Chinese television reported on Friday.
Hu made the remarks in a phone call to Obama, telling him that their two governments should focus on developing “healthy” ties and that he wanted to address trade issues via talks, the report said.
But Hu also told Obama that heeding China’s concerns about Tibet and the self-ruled island of Taiwan was also “vitally important” to good relations, it said. (Reporting by Yu Le, Zhou Xin, Wang Lan and Emma Graham-Harrison; Writing by Chris Buckley; Editing by Ben Lim)
BEIJING, April 2 (Reuters) – Chinese President Hu Jintao told U.S. President Barack Obama he wants healthy ties between the two nations, while stressing Beijing’s sensitivity about Taiwan and Tibet, Chinese television reported on Friday.
Hu made the remarks in a phone call to Obama, telling him that their two governments should focus on developing “healthy” ties and that he wanted to address trade issues via talks, the report said.
But Hu also told Obama that heeding China’s concerns about Tibet and the self-ruled island of Taiwan was also “vitally important” to good relations, it said. (Reporting by Yu Le, Zhou Xin, Wang Lan and Emma Graham-Harrison; Writing by Chris Buckley; Editing by Ben Lim)
BEIJING, April 2 (Reuters) – Chinese President Hu Jintao told U.S. President Barack Obama he wants healthy ties between the two nations, while stressing Beijing’s sensitivity about Taiwan and Tibet, Chinese television reported on Friday.
Hu made the remarks in a phone call to Obama, telling him that their two governments should focus on developing “healthy” ties and that he wanted to address trade issues via talks, the report said.
But Hu also told Obama that heeding China’s concerns about Tibet and the self-ruled island of Taiwan was also “vitally important” to good relations, it said. (Reporting by Yu Le, Zhou Xin, Wang Lan and Emma Graham-Harrison; Writing by Chris Buckley; Editing by Ben Lim)
BEIJING, April 2 (Reuters) – Chinese President Hu Jintao told U.S. President Barack Obama he wants healthy ties between the two nations, while stressing Beijing’s sensitivity about Taiwan and Tibet, Chinese television reported on Friday.
Hu made the remarks in a phone call to Obama, telling him that their two governments should focus on developing “healthy” ties and that he wanted to address trade issues via talks, the report said.
But Hu also told Obama that heeding China’s concerns about Tibet and the self-ruled island of Taiwan was also “vitally important” to good relations, it said. (Reporting by Yu Le, Zhou Xin, Wang Lan and Emma Graham-Harrison; Writing by Chris Buckley; Editing by Ben Lim)
New Delhi, Sep. 11 (ANI): A Malaysian spiritual seeker, who landed in a Varanasi jail for violating Indian immigration laws, has finally left for home in Johor.
After being released from jail on August 27, Lim Soon Seng was waiting to obtain his exit certificate from the Foreigners Regional Registration Office in Delhi to leave India.
“I was shattered in prison. All I wanted to do was to heal and help people but I went through some bad karma in India. There were so many legal complications.
“It placed so much stress on my family and me. Now I am free and happy to go home and see my sister,” The Star Online quoted Lim as saying before his departure on a Malaysia Airlines flight for Kuala Lumpur.
A follower of the Krishna Consciousness movement, Lim of Johor landed on the ghats of Varanasi in 2001. For the next six years he diligently renewed his visa as he wandered in orange robes with sadhus and lived a life of solitude.
But Lim’s spiritual sojourn turned into a nightmare when his passport expired in 2005 and he failed to renew it.
For the next 20 months, Lim, in his 50s, languished in Varanasi jail, one of the most crowded and dreaded Indian jails where notorious criminals are held.
Lim was charged under Section 14 of the Foreigners Act, where offenders can face a jail sentence of between six months and seven years.
A German diplomat, who visited the jail to meet a fellow citizen, came across Lim and notified the Malaysian High Commission in Delhi about his predicament.
Once the embassy assured the local district magistrate that he would be repatriated to Malaysia safely, Lim was released. (ANI)
Washington, Sep 2 (ANI): Two University of Alberta researchers have found that children’s games like hide-and-seek could pave way for more realistic video games, and high-tech search-enhancing tools for the police.
Experimental psychologist Marcia Spetch and computer scientist Vadim Bulitko used their research to understand the reasoning and decision-making process involved in hiding and searching for objects.
They believe that it will lead to more realistic game environments, and even advanced search-enhancing tools for law enforcement.
The study focuses on a multi-phase study that involved adult participants searching for and hiding objects in a room in a virtual-reality setting resembling the real room’s dimensions.
The researchers found that people who were searching for objects tended to look in places closer to their starting location, whereas people tended to move farthest away from the starting point when hiding objects.
The hiders would disperse objects over a wider area to make them harder to find.
On role-reversal, this group provided the researchers with some interesting observations.
“People that had already hidden objects tended to move further away from the starting place consistent with where people normally hide objects. It was as though the hiding primed them into what kinds of locations things might be hidden in,” said Spetch.
Understanding peoples’ hiding behaviours and considering their motivations and other factors (time, stress, value of an object) would help researchers in mapping out and predicting ideal hiding spots in any given space.
Gamers would benefit directly from this knowledge, as it will allow programmers to hide objects in more interesting locations within a game, based on peoples’ real-life search strategies.
The information will give programmers more information they can use to make computer-generated characters, or game-bots, more human-like by giving them human characteristics and limitations.
Bulitko said that this makes the game more fun for the players.
He is hoping for a law enforcement application using computer-enhanced eyewear similar to technology currently available in military circles.
By analysing a room, the search-enhancing goggles could help limit the number of possible spots where an object may be hidden.
“A computer can recognize spots in a room, and maybe it can make some suggestions like ‘OK, check under that plank on the floor,’” he said.
The study has been published in Learning and Motivation. (ANI)
George Town (Malaysia), July 1 (ANI): A group of Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) supporters gathered at Komtar, demanding that the Penang Government use its “executive powers” to save Kampung Buah Pala.
About 300 villagers living in Kampung Buah Pala are facing eviction after a Federal Court ruled in favour of the landowner and developer on June 24.
Twenty of them from Kuala Lumpur, Seremban and Penang arrived at the state administrative building with about 30 villagers yesterday morning to hand over a letter of appeal to Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.
In the letter, they expressed regret over the state government’s alleged “broken promises”.
They also urged Lim to invoke his powers under the National Land Code and Land Acquisition Act to stop the developers from levelling the village known as Penang’s High Chaparral.
Before the March 2008 general election, there were so many promises but now, everybody is keeping quiet.
“They tell us to take them to the national-level, but they can’t even handle state problems,” said Penang Hindraf coordinator K. Kalaiselvam.
Carrying Hindraf chairman S. Waythamoorthy’s seven-year-old daughter Vwaishhnnavi, who held the handwritten letter of appeal addressed to Lim, Kalaiselvam led the delegation that arrived at Komtar at about 10.40am.
The group had a brief confrontation with Komtar security guards who instructed them to choose five representatives to hand over the letter, but 10 were eventually allowed to enter and meet Lim’s political secretary Ng Wei Aik.
Ng, who then instructed the police to allow the entire group in, addressed them, but tempers flared when they were informed that Lim had other appointments.
The villagers’ claim that DAP and PKR representatives had promised their village would be spared if Pakatan took over the state in the last general election. (ANI)
SINGAPORE, April 16 (Reuters) – Australand ALZ.AX, a unit of Singapore’s Capitaland (CATL.SI), said on Thursday it has secured a total of A$350 million in loans from three domestic banks.
Together with existing undrawn facilities, it will provide the group with sufficient capacity to repay an A$563 million CMBS facility maturing on June 25, 2009. (Reporting by Harry Suhartono, editing by Kevin Lim and Sanjeev Miglani)
HONG KONG–(Business Wire)–
Instinet Incorporated, a global leader in electronic trading and agency-only
brokerage services, today announced that its three Asian brokerage units have
collectively been named “Best Electronic Brokerage House” by The Asset magazine
in its Triple A Transaction Banking Awards for 2009
(www.theasset.com/storage/File/2009/Award/TB09.pdf).
“We are extremely pleased that Instinet`s unwavering commitment to helping
clients achieve best execution through our agency-only model and advanced
technologies has been recognised,” said Fumiki Kondo, Co-CEO of Instinet
Incorporated.
The annual awards recognize institutions and individuals that have made a
significant contribution to the development of the financial services sector in
Asia, and are considered to be among the most prestigious in the industry due to
their rigorous assessment process.
In addition to today`s award, Instinet was recognized in March 2009 for
providing the “Best Execution Management System for 2009″ by World Finance
magazine and “Best Broker-Supplied Product/Service” for its SmartRouter in the
2008 Buy-side Technology Awards.
One of the largest agency-only brokers operating in Asia, Instinet employs over
50 sales and trading personnel in the region. Instinet offers a comprehensive
suite of high-touch to high-frequency electronic trading services in Asia,
including agency-only sales trading, global portfolio trading, global
algorithmic trading/DMA, the Newport® 3 EMS, a comprehensive trade analytics
platform and commission management services. In addition, the firm operates
three ATS (alternative trading system) platforms in Asia – CBX ASIA,
JapanCrossing and KoreaCross.
NOTE: CBX ASIA is the brand name for Instinet`s CBX platform in Asia and is not
licensed or regulated in any market as a pan-Asian platform. Instinet`s CBX
offerings in each market are regulated under the relevant rules and regulations
governing each jurisdiction.
About Instinet
Instinet is an electronic trading pioneer, having established the world`s first
significant electronic trading venue in 1969, one of the first recognized U.S.
ECNs in 1997 and the first pan-European MTF in 2007. Through its subsidiaries
and affiliates, Instinet operates two distinct business lines: a global network
of agency-only brokers that seek to help institutions lower overall trading
costs and improve investment performance through the use of innovative
electronic trading products, including smart-routing, algorithms, DMA, dark
pools and EMS platforms, and also provide sales trading, commission management
services and independent research; and the Chi-X® trading systems, which aim to
improve the efficiency of capital markets globally by providing
high-performance, low-cost alternative execution venues. Instinet is a
wholly-owned subsidiary of Nomura Holdings, Inc. For more information, please
visit www.instinet.com.
©2009 Instinet Incorporated and its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. INSTINET
is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries throughout
the world.
Instinet
Mark Dowd, +1-212-310-5331
First Vice President, Global Corporate Communications and Public Relations
mark.dowd@instinet.com
or
Elina Lim, +65-6854-3420
Head of Asia Marketing and Public Relations
elina.lim@instinet.com
Copyright Business Wire 2009
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