Clementi Mall operational by Jan
THE Clementi Mall, a new mall in which Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) has a 60 per cent stake, is scheduled to be operational by January next year, with Fairprice Finest, Foodfare and the National Library Board (NLB) as its anchor tenants.
Drinks firms eyeing S-E Asian acquisitions
Singapore
Relaunch of remaining Belle Vue units
WING Tai Holdings will relaunch the remaining apartments in its Oxley Walk luxury Belle Vue Residences at prices between $2,300 and $2,800 per square foot (psf), the developer said yesterday.
High clearing fees in the spotlight
THE Singapore Exchange will go live with new technology to boost trading speeds in the coming year, but some market participants are concerned that the exchange’s clearing and settlement still carry high fees and are complex to execute in a pan-Asian context, reports Finance Asia.
Business briefing
CHIP Eng Seng Corporation said its subsidiary, Evervit Development, has entered into an option to buy the freehold industrial land at No 98 and 100 Pasir Panjang Road for $62.8 million excluding Goods and Services Tax.
Making their mark
THEY grew up in the age of high-speed Internet, but a bug must’ve got them along the way, because Nick Lam, Kok Yen Yen, Josh Choo and Sandora Kwan are nothing like the e-enthusiastic youth of today.
Snack attack
FOR kueh aficionados working or living in KL’s trendy Bangsar district, three o’clock is the magic hour.
Here to stay
‘IS this the right place?’ our taxi driver asks doubtfully as we trundle into Shanghai’s quiet South Bund district, about a 20-minute walk from the central Bund area.
A personal, intimate dining experience
SHANGHAI’S central Bund area is a hotbed of gastronomic restaurants helmed by some of the world’s top chefs.
Show-stopper
CREATIVE’S headphones are known more for sterling sound quality than bling, but that’s changed with the HQ-1450, which comes in red, blue, green and black.
Nordic exposure
SWEDEN is more often recognised for producing prolific interior and industrial designs, but thanks to designers such as Lee Cotter and Astrid Olsson of Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair (FASR), its fashion cred is also on the rise.
Stalking the silent killer
OVARIAN cancer is widely known as ‘the silent killer’. Its symptoms are non-specific and frequently, they are similar to more common conditions such as bladder or digestive disorders.
Mixed fortunes for global service sector: surveys
SURVEYS of the global service sector have highlighted a growing divergence in economic recovery, with a pick-up in growth in China and Germany but slowdowns in Britain and Spain and an expected deceleration in the United States.
Snazzy Suzuki
JAPAN’S most profitable small car manufacturer has entered the big car market with a model that sounds like a delicious morsel of raw fish on rice. The Suzuki Kizashi is a mid-sized saloon with a relatively large – by Suzuki standards – 2.4-litre engine.
Valley of automotive R&D
CARS may not be the first thing you associate Silicon Valley with but at a sprawling facility in Palo Alto, the Volkswagen Group has set up what it calls a bridge between Silicon Valley engineering and automotive engineering.
Get Seat and drive
IF YOU are visiting Barcelona, there is no better way to see more of this interesting Spanish city and the surrounding Catalonian countryside than by car. Especially in self-drive mode.
Special perks for Avis customers
AVIS has an international network of over 5,100 locations in 174 countries.
The modern face of TCM
RICHARD Eu has a twinkle in his eye – a testament to his love of mischief and tendency to go against the grain.
Genting dominates; STI unexpectedly tops 3,000
WHAT would traders do without the Genting stable to fall back on?
NUH should work towards the next lap: SM Goh
SINGAPORE’S first restructured hospital, the National University Hospital (NUH), celebrated its 25th anniversary yesterday. Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, who officiated at NUH’s inauguration in 1986, was the guest-of-honour. The hospital was opened in June 24, 1985.
Companies walk for a good cause
SEVERAL companies have stepped forward to support this weekend’s Dover Park Hospice Sunday Walk 2010, a joint event organised by the hospice and The Business Times.
Red hot style at BT Wine Night
DIFFERENT styles of red wine from around the world took centre stage at The Business Times Wine Night on Thursday.
Briefing
LUI Tuck Yew, Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, has named eight new members to the National Arts Council (NAC).
Quiet achiever to head SIA
IN the end, it was a dark horse that nosed out the frontrunners to claim one of the most prized jobs in aviation. Singapore Airlines (SIA) has picked its former cargo chief, Goh Choon Phong, to succeed outgoing chief executive Chew Choon Seng.
SingTel technicians stung as soccer bug bites
A MONTH into the new season for the Barclays Premier League (BPL), the love for the game is keeping more than a few soccer-mad Singaporeans awake in the wee hours of the morning.
Penalty threat to help HDB effect new rules
THE Housing & Development Board (HDB) will be relying on buyers of non-subsidised flats to declare if they own private properties here or overseas.
Jobless rate up despite private firms’ hirings
PRIVATE employers hired more workers over the past three months than first thought, lifting hopes for the weak US economy ahead of the Labor Day weekend.
Progen ordered to repay liquidators $18.5m
THE creditors of bankrupt Progen Engineering may get some reprieve after the Court of Appeal on Thursday ordered its parent company to repay $18.5 million to liquidators to settle their debts.
Chinese investors eyeing Potash
CHINESE and other investors have approached at least one big Canadian pension manager about a bid for Canada’s Potash Corp to rival BHP Billiton’s US$39 billion hostile offer.
Grand Prix 2010 has lots to offer
GRAND Prix Season Singapore (Sept 17-26) is zipping back into town.
Maybank opens Islamic banking hub in S’pore
MAYBANK, Malaysia’s biggest lender, has set up a dedicated Islamic banking hub here as part of a concerted push to expand the business beyond its home market, as it strives to gain an edge over rivals vying to stamp their name on South-east Asia.
Govt to raise DI coverage limit to $50,000
SAVERS will enjoy higher deposit insurance (DI) of $50,000 – up from the current $20,000 – next year.
China’s forex reserves largely held in US dollars
CHINA yesterday offered a rare glimpse into its foreign exchange reserves, confirming that they are overwhelmingly allocated in dollars, while a central banker said the mountain of cash could face depreciation risks.
Giving a credit card its due in service stakes
YOU get what you pay for. This was once again brought home to me this week when I began terminating services following my younger son’s departure for overseas study.
The casualties of Iraq war
US PRESIDENT Barack Obama has announced a formal end to US combat operations in Iraq and said that it was time to ‘turn the page’. It will not be easy.
Saving mentality is delaying US recovery
THE logic of the economic recovery isn’t working – or, at any rate, not well. By that logic, over-borrowed Americans would repay loans and replenish depleted savings, creating a temporary drop in consumer spending and economic activity.
FAO to hold special meeting on price hikes
A UN food agency has called a special meeting on the recent spike in food prices, responding to fears of a repeat of the shortages that led to riots in parts of the world two years ago.
30m made jobless globally by financial crisis: report
THE global financial crisis has forced as many as 30 million people out of work since 2007, and economies need ways to generate more ‘decent’ jobs, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and International Labour Organization (ILO) said.
UN telecoms chief urges data sharing
THE Canadian manufacturer of Blackberry should give law enforcement agencies around the world access to its customer data, the UN telecommunications chief said, adding that governments have legitimate security concerns that should not be ignored.
Jakarta raises bank reserve ratio as inflation hits 16-month high
INDONESIA has ordered banks to set aside more cash as reserves after inflation accelerated to a 16-month high in the world’s fourth most populous nation.
EU trade chief apologises for comments
THE European Union’s trade chief apologised yesterday for blaming Jews and the ‘Jewish lobby’ in Washington for blocking Mideast peace as the embarrassed EU head office quickly distanced itself from his comments.
Bank’s pay practices still need improvement: survey
BANKS must do more to align employee pay with risk-taking and they have made little progress in meeting disclosure goals, according to a report from the Institute of International Finance.
Q2 Japan capex decline lower than forecast; GDP seen revised up
JAPANESE companies cut capital spending in the April-to-June quarter by a less-than-expected 1.7 per cent from the same period last year, pointing to an upward revision of an anaemic preliminary reading for second-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) growth.
Burger King ready to be bought by 3G Capital
BURGER King Holdings agreed on Thursday to sell itself for US$3.26 billion to 3G Capital, an investment firm with strong ties to Latin America.
3Par’s venture investors reap US$560m by holding shares
PATIENCE has paid off for the venture capitalists who backed data-storage supplier 3Par Inc.
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