Singapore

A CB Richard Ellis study shows prices of Executive Condominiums (ECs) rode on bullish private residential market, causing the surge in their median resale prices by 63 percent in two years.

Electricity has never been safer. Senoko Power has set a new safety benchmark performance in terms of safety by achieving three million man hours without any lost-time injury on the 22nd of October. The firm is Singapore’s largest power generation company with a licensed capacity of 3,300 megawatts which provides about 28% of the nation’s electricity needs.

BASF is the world’s leading chemical company. Its portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics and performance products to agricultural products, fine chemicals and oil and gas.

PotterHouse aims to develop into a holistic Career Strategy & Development Consultant. It integrates its Executive Recruitment, Outplacement Consulting and Executive Coaching services with Corporate Career Design, Planning & Development as well as non-traditional career services encompassing alternative, golden and mid career strategies.

Fortifying web security is like running an arms race against spammers and malware authors. It needs to receive budgetary priority regardless of the prevailing economic conditions or risk losing out to the so-called shadow economy.

SingTel’s monopoly on the iPhone is finally over. iPhone fanatics can now look forward to buying the gadget from StarHub as well. In a press statement released today, mobile service provider StarHub announced its confirmation to offer the Apple iPhone later this year, along with tailored service plans to its Singaporean consumers. Information on pricing, tariffs and availability dates were yet to be released. The deal came after much haggling on the part of StarHub. After a results briefing last Wednesday, StarHub chief executive Terry Clontz had initially announced that StarHub would not be able to bring the gadget in this year, but added that the telco was still in 'dialogue with Apple', citing difficulties because Apple had its ‘priorities signing on distributors.' He added that the iPhone been the source of 'some consternation' for StarHub.

Hyflux, one of the world’s leading technology-driven environmental companies, has just signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) for two seawater desalination plants in Libya and could potentially enlarge EPC order book by S$1billion and extend earnings visibility to 2013.

Jumping up 11 ranks in a listing of the world’s top country brands, Singapore now ranks 13th from last year’s of 24th in FutureBrand’s Country Brand Index (CBI). Singapore also got top spots in the categories of Best Country Brand for Shopping and Best Country Brand - Easiest to Do Business In.

Following the release of its 2009 earnings, Visa Inc. reported that the total volume generated on all Visa cards across Asia Pacific had increased by 13 percent to US$981 billion over the past 12 months.

Roche, a Swiss drug-making firm, specializes in research-focused healthcare particularly in the areas of pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. The company opened its first biologics manufacturing site in the Asia Pacific region in Tuas yesterday. Its two facilities cost Roche US$500 million and will be used to produce drugs Avastin and Lucentis. Avastin is a targeted cancer therapy which treats various tumour types such as colorectal cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer, brain cancer and renal cell carcinoma, while Lucentis is used to treat patients with wet age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness in people over 55. On the selection of Singapore, Dr Patrick Y. Yang, Executive Vice President of Genentech Technical Operations, which is a wholly-owned member of Roche Group stated: “As we supply a global market, Singapore offers important advantages to Roche’s manufacturing network, including a skilled labor pool, nearby biotechnology expertise and a supportive business environment.” Finance Minister Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who was also at the opening ceremony, said: “Singapore is proud to be Roche’s first site for biologics manufacturing in Asia. The site expresses a number of things that are making Singapore's future – cutting-edge manufacturing technologies, the commercialisation of science, a commitment to develop a top-quality workforce and the deepening partnerships that leading global players are forging with Singapore.” He added that Singapore was committed to building its biologics manufacturing sector, with six plants so far set up in the last four years. When these are fully operational, they are expected to create over 1,000 jobs for employees.

The mailman definitely delivers. Singapore Post Limited reported an increase in net profit by 8.3% to $40.5 million. The group’s mail revenue did decrease 4.4% to S$87.6 million on lower international mail contributions. So which part of Singapore Post’s business was reeling in the profits? The company’s logistics revenue increased 142.6%, benefiting from the first full quarterly contribution from Quantium Solutions, a full-service information technology consulting company, offering both consulting and technical support to middle-market businesses and government agencies. Without Quantium Solutions, it is believed that the group would have posted a 4% decline this quarter. And although revenue from Speedpost saw a decline, rental and property-related income continued to grow, rising 23.1% to S$10.1 million, with higher rental income from Singapore Post Centre and the leasing of space at the repurposed post office buildings. Group CEO of Singapore Post Limited, Wilson Tan is cautiously optimistic about the postal service industry. “Although the global economy is showing signs of recovery, the postal industry typically experiences a longer recovery runway. We are certainly not out of the woods yet and we continue to face unrelenting pressures from the operating environment.” He added: “We remain disciplined on cost management, and are focused on expanding Quantium Solutions’ business beyond cross-border mail and extending its core competencies in Asia Pacific. We will continue to reinvent ourselves and stay relevant to our customers, while actively pursuing new growth opportunities.”

To the unemployed person the unemployment rate is always 100%. And with the recent retrenchments and hiring freezes around town, the odds of finding a job are akin to winning the lottery. So despite rumours floating around town that the economy is about to pick and many firms will begin to hire once again, why is it extremely difficult for anyone to land a job? The Singapore Business Review speaks exclusively to the region’s top human resources, recruitment and consulting firms and lets you in on the truth surrounding most companies managing their headcount, the hiring trends in 2009 and where the job market intends to go this year and how you could just land that dream job.

Out of the two integrated resorts that may be opening at the end of the year, Genting Singapore’s Resort World may have the upper hand over Marina Bay Sands when i t comes to packing in the local punters. And the secret to what may be the key to Resorts World getting the upper hand could just be the Universal Studios movie theme park. Analysts from DBS Vickers Securities believe that Universal Studios may be the key to attract Singapore’s mass market, and Genting’s strength in the mass market.

The APEC CEO Summit to be held in Singapore next week has 1,500 participants confirmed to attend. This is the largest attendance in record for the event since its inception in 1996.

Keppel Land’s head honcho Kevin Wong has a good reason to smile. Not only did Keppel Land report a strong set of figures for that period, it exceeded most analysts’ expectations.

The black ink continued to flow over at SPH, albeit not as quickly as last year as the downturn in advertising bit into revenues. But at least there was no red ink for the newspaper-cum-property development group, which saw rental income from its Paragon department store help it post a respectable full year profit of $497 million, which was down just under 1% on 2008.