Raffles Medical posts 20% profit rise
PRIVATE healthcare provider Raffles Medical Group posted a 20.1 per cent increase in net profit to $37.88 million for the full year ended Dec 31, 2009, helped by a higher patient load and better operating efficiencies.
Midas full year profit rises 15% to $37.5m
MIDAS Holdings reported a 14.9 per cent rise in net profit yesterday to $37.5 million for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2009.
February market capitalisation flat at $664 billion
THE Singapore market in February posted flat growth in value over the month, worn down by concerns over the mounting debt of Greece and its European Union (EU) neighbours.
UOB-Kay Hian’s Q4 net profit up 85.2%
BROKING house UOB-Kay Hian has turned in a strong performance for the year ended Dec 31, 2009 – with commission income rising 20.4 per cent and net profit 5.2 per cent.
ThaiBev posts 2.2% rise in 2009 profit
THAI Beverage Public, Thailand’s largest brewer and distiller, posted a 2.2 per cent increase in net profit to 10.57 billion baht (S$449 million) for the full year ended Dec 31, 2009.
Cerebos eyes 10-20% growth
SINGAPORE-listed health supplements company Cerebos Pacific said yesterday that it is aiming for a 10-20 per cent revenue growth over the next three years as it steps up its presence in China, Indonesia and Vietnam.
Venture back on profit growth path in Q4
A SHARP drop in one-time charges helped put Venture Corporation back on the profit growth path in the fourth quarter, after three straight quarters of bottom-line decline.
YHI’s Q4 profit climbs 85% to $7.3m
YHI International sped to an 85.1 per cent rise in net profit to $7.3 million for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2009, thanks to higher revenue, lower operating expenses and currency exchange gains.
Delong back in the black to tune of 668.8m yuan
THINGS have finally turned around for China-based steelmaker Delong Holdings, which reported a return to the black yesterday with a full-year net profit of 668.8 million yuan (S$137.8 million) following a successful debt restructuring.
Baker Tech Q4 net profit up 23%; dividend yield 7.5%
DESPITE sluggish revenue and new orders, oil & gas equipment and services specialist Baker Technology has shown strong earnings growth and declared a dividend of more than 7 per cent yield.
Business briefing
FERROCHINA Limited said it will be delisted on March 11, as it is now insolvent and cannot make a reasonable exit offer to the shareholders, as directed by the Singapore Exchange.
At a glance
More than meets the eye
FERRAN Adria may be closing El Bulli soon, but rather than throw up your hands and lament, ‘Damn there goes any miniscule hope of getting a table there this year’, here are some words of comfort. Go to Tokyo.
100% Tetsuya
TOP Australian chef Tetsuya Wakuda says that his new restaurant at Marina Bay Sands will be ’100 per cent Tetsuya’, and if his establishment Down Under is anything to go by, that equates to something which local diners can look forward to 100 per cent.
Land of plenty
IN New Zealand, luxury is defined by the abundance of space, the purity of nature and the freshness of its produce.
Silence is golden
NOISE pollution is a problem everywhere these days, especially in crowded cities, and an obvious way to escape from the din is to don a pair of noise-cancelling headphones.
Defying the odds
AFTER breast cancer patient Jane Soong, in her 50s, was ‘cured’ in 2001, she didn’t think the disease would come back – especially not after seven years in remission.
Electric avenue
WHAT makes for a truly momentous occasion? The discovery of penicillin? The fall of the Berlin Wall? Or maybe a little Mitsubishi with blue and yellow plates?
Kia’s best Forte
IN 2009, Kia was the phenomenon of the recession year when it jumped seven places to No 4 in the ranking among authorised distributors. And the model that powered it up the charts was a brand new model called the Cerato Forte.
From small to big
THE current Kia lineup in Singapore reflects the slow infusion of the Korean carmaker’s new design DNA into its model range.
A new beginning
TO SAY Opel has been through a rough patch is like saying driving in a North American snow storm can be hazardous. Both are gross understatements.
All business
THERE’S no better way to describe Sunny Verghese, Mr Olam, than business-like.
Genting, UOB in focus in directionless week
PERHAPS the only thing of interest this week from a macro standpoint was an apparent decoupling of the local market from Wall Street.
Jan factory output grows 39.4%
SINGAPORE’S factory output expanded 39.4 per cent year-on-year last month, thanks to a production surge in the electronics and biomedical cluster, the latest figures show.
Record passenger numbers at Changi in Jan
A RECORD 3.38 million passengers passed through Changi Airport last month – a 10 per cent rise from January last year and almost 9 per cent more than the pre-crisis level of January 2008.
Business Receipts Index dips 0.2% in Q4
WHILE recent manufacturing output data surged above expectations, the latest figures on Singapore’s services sector have merely held steady.
Visitor arrivals post strong 17.6% gain
IN one of the strongest showings in the last year or so, visitor arrivals to Singapore jumped 17.6 per cent year-on-year to 908,000 for the month of January.
Commissioning work begins on Shell’s new cracker
SHELL has started commissioning work, including testing and running-in of its new ethylene cracker complex – the centrepiece of its new US$3 billion Shell Eastern Petrochemicals Complex (SEPC) in Singapore which will be fully operational by next month.
HELP centres set up in Subordinate Courts
THE Subordinate Courts have set up two help centres for the increasing number of people who can’t or don’t want to engage lawyers, Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong said yesterday.
Budget hits & misses get airing at PwC talk
THE political and social sensitivities of immigration policy, and Singapore’s economic need to turn away some foreigners while drawing others, stirred discussion at PricewaterhouseCoopers’ 2010 Budget seminar yesterday.
Group M stamps its Power of One Day across the Asia-Pacific
ON a mission to do their part for charity, Group M employees from across the Asia-Pacific stopped working for clients yesterday and undertook various activities to make a difference both locally and abroad.
The sound of sweet charity
‘PARTNERSHIP is the key to our business,’ said Ajay Kanwal, regional head of consumer banking, Singapore and South-east Asia, Standard Chartered. Mr Kanwal lived up to his motto on Thursday evening at the Shangri-La Hotel. He took the stage along with Ray Ferguson, Stanchart’s regional CEO, Singapore and South-east Asia, and well-known Canto pop star Frances Yip to belt out an evergreen Mandarin number, Tian Mi Mi (Sweet Honey) as part of the evening’s charity auction programme.
Productivity, innovation and incentives
Key emphasis of this Budget is increasing productivity. What do you understand by this?
DC rates take striking hike in scenic Sentosa
SENTOSA has seen a big jump in development charge (DC) rates, reflecting higher land values on the island following this month’s opening of Resorts World Sentosa (RWS).
Goggle-eyed at Google Singapore
IT did not bode well for Google’s trendy upstart image at first, finding out that its Singapore office is located in the steel cuboid jungle of Shenton Way – a sprint away from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, no less.
Slower inventory drawdown kicks up Q4 growth to 5.9%
THE US economy grew faster than initially thought in the fourth quarter as businesses drew down inventories at a much slower pace and boosted investment, a government report showed yesterday.
SGX firms turn in robust Q4 numbers
SINGAPORE-LISTED companies turned in a strong fourth-quarter performance, with some reporting sharply higher profits than a year back.
Singapore banks beat market expectations
FOURTH-quarter earnings at the Singapore banks have exceeded analysts’ expectations, boosted by a mix of trading gains and a steep drop in charges for bad loans as economic conditions improved.
Tide turns for superyacht traffic
IF the movement patterns of superyacht owners indicate discretionary income among the well-heeled, economic conditions turned in the third quarter of last year and are set to recover this year.
46b baht of Thaksin’s assets to be seized
THAILAND’S Supreme Court will confiscate 46 billion baht (S$1.96 billion) of the frozen assets belonging to the country’s fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, after ruling that he had illegally concealed his ownership of telecoms shares during the five years when he was in office, among other revelations.
Kofi Annan to Asia: Help Africa succeed for mutual benefit
ASIA’S growing economic and political power can help Africa overcome many of the obstacles that have hindered its development for decades, former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan said in a public lecture here yesterday.
Restless computing
IN June last year, I predicted that Apple would join the e-book party, likely with its own tablet computer.
The yuan needs an offshore market
US President Barack Obama calls for a stronger yuan. Does he have real clout or is this just a publicity stunt to appease voters back home?
Buoyed by growth, India to cut deficit
INDIA’S economy has weathered the global recession well and may grow at a 10 per cent pace in the ‘not-too-distant future’, but the country also needs to review public spending and improve its fiscal position.
UK 4th quarter growth revised upwards to 0.3%
BRITAIN’S economy grew faster than expected in the last three months of last year, but the 18-month recession from which it emerged proved to have been even deeper than previously thought.
Swiss banks shun untaxed money
SWITZERLAND said that it would no longer accept untaxed money into its banks as it tries to ease pressure on its US$2 trillion offshore banking industry from key trading partners seeking to boost tax revenues.
AIG posts US$8.9b Q4 loss, may seek more help
AMERICAN International Group, the insurer rescued by the US, posted a fourth-quarter loss on charges tied to paying down its bailout debt and boosting commercial insurance reserves.
Financial crisis CEOs return
FROM moviemaking to architecture, the shamed and banished chief executives of the 2008 credit crisis have opted for some unusual career paths, either by choice or necessity.
Deflation data seen pressuring BOJ
DEFLATION showed no sign of easing its grip on Japan last month despite a sharper-than-expected rise in retail sales and in industrial output during the month.
SEC studying credit default swaps’ destabilising effects
UNITED States securities regulators said on Thursday that they are examining the potential abuses and destabilising effects of credit default swaps
BNP pans concerns over India as Greece of Asia
INDIA’S monetary policy flexibility may help the country trim its budget deficit and deflect comparisons as the Greece of Asia, BNP Paribas said.
Blackstone’s yuan fund reeling in big China investors: sources
US buyout giant Blackstone has nailed down three commitments so far to its landmark yuan-denominated fund for China, with the country’s national pension fund expected to be a major investor.
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