News

Four new partners, Carol Lim, Kenneth Oh, Evelyn Ang and Pun Ling Fung, join Rodyk & Davidson's corporate finance practices.

SIA’s agreement with SAS enables the latter to add destinations in Finland, Norway and Sweden to its codeshare network.

The average workplace fraud in Asia is US$300,000 compared to a worldwide average of $160,000.

Developers are showing signs of being "more prudent" in their bidding for new land sites, says DBS Vickers.

Overall inflation in the 12 months to October 2010 came in at 3.5 % but analysts warn wage pressure remains a risk.

The American bank has recently inked a 10-year lease with Asia Square to take up more than 250,000 square feet of office space spanning 8 floors from levels 17 to 24 plus a 5,000 sq ft retail banking hall. Occupying nearly a quarter of the net lettable office space at Tower 1, Citi will be Asia Square’s largest tenant. And a large part of this decision was influenced by Asia Square’s unique ‘Human Building’ proposition. MGPA’s flagship premium integrated commercial development, Asia Square is the first building in Singapore to put human capital at the very heart of its approach. A top priority on the agenda of many government agencies and political leaders for some eight years now, there is an even greater emphasis on human capital especially after the September 2008 financial meltdown as companies reinvent their business models for the future. This has culminated in Asia Square clinching the largest leasing transaction in the CBD area since the recent financial crisis. Located in the heart of the New Downtown, Asia Square has bucked the trend in commercial developments by putting the human element at the heart of its design and technologies. With longer and more demanding working hours, there is an even greater need for commercial buildings to ensure a balanced and conducive working environment. Asia Square’s answer to this is how it has built in an optimal balance of Work, Play, Live and Grow elements from the ground up to create a new benchmark for office space, making human capital a key priority for businesses to sharpen their competitive edge. “Commercial buildings today have to offer more than just location and connectivity to amenities. There are so many choices that tenants have become much more discerning and exacting in standards. How Asia Square is changing the game is our approach to build and design from the human perspective – so that it’s not just a great address but a great working and business environment. The design, space optimisation, sustainability features and Work, Play, Live and Grow concept all come together seamlessly to drive this. It’s a winning proposition because it’s all about business efficiency,” said Mr John Saunders, CEO Asia of MGPA. Business Efficiency the Big Draw Indeed, having all of Asia Square’s Work, Play, Live and Grow elements working together to drive efficiency is one of the key factors that prompted Citi’s move to Asia Square, from its current location spanning 25 floors at Centennial Tower and Millenia. Citi will consolidate its operations of over 2,500 employees under one roof thanks to Asia Square’s large floor plates, well-appointed design, accessibility and its design approach to optimise human capital. “Asia Square is an excellent choice for our corporate office. Maximising business efficiency plays a critical role in our strategic plans as we look to expand our operations in Singapore. This is why we have chosen Asia Square as it comprises all the intelligent design features and world-class elements and specifications,” said Mr Michael Zink, Country Head and Citi Country Officer for Singapore. “Its ‘human building’ proposition optimises the workspace to create greater business efficiency, allowing us to bring our entire franchise together. We also like its Intelligent Building Management System, which will deliver a quality indoor environment through its sophisticated air handling and treatment processes.” Citi’s new office at Asia Square will house their trading floor that will run 24/7. The trading floor is critical to Citi’s business and will have 100 per cent back up power and back up air-conditioning in the event of emergency failure from the power grid or the district cooling system. Asia Square’s technical provisions and flexibility made the decision to relocate a lot easier. Location a Prime Factor Another important factor influencing Citi’s decision to relocate to Asia Square was to do with the shifting center for business and finance to Marina Bay. Asia Square is located right at the heart of Marina Bay and Citi will have prominent signage and exposure on the façade of the building. Impeccable Sustainability Credentials Top it Off Citi is also one of the “greenest” banks in the world and have adopted a policy of always moving their new offices to LEED rated buildings. Asia Square’s green credentials in sustainability are second to no other building in Singapore in this regard, as it has achieved both the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum pre-certification and Singapore’s Building Construction Authority (BCA) Green Mark Platinum award, the first A Grade office building to achieve this status in the Singapore CBD. Asia Square Tower 1 is slated for completion in June 2011 whilst Tower 2 is targeted to complete in 2013.

The 99-year leasehold residential project built on the former Farrer Court site has to sell 1715 units, says DBS. The development, located at the junction of Leedon Heights and Farrer Road, comprises 7 high end residential towers and 12 villas with a total of 1715 units. Sizes of the condominiums range from 900sf for the smallest unit to 4000sf for some of the villas. CapitaLand is expected to roll out the project in phases. Selling prices for majority of the units are expected to be from $1600psf, which is around 5% higher than the prices achieved at new freehold projects - Waterfall Gardens and the 6-year old freehold Levelz at around $1500-1550 psf.

500 sets of 3-in-1 coin set which consists of 1 troy ounce 999.9 gold proof coin, 2 troy ounce 999 silver piedfort coloured coin and cupro-nickel proof-like coin is produced as part of the mintage for the individual coins.  

Singapore's local bank had no problem raising the $800 million in preference shares. According to a company statement, allocation of the 4.70% non-cumulative, non-convertible, and non-voting preference shares went as follows: the The Public Offer, the Placement and the Reserve Offer accounted for SGD 550 million, SGD 205 million and SGD 45 million respectively of the total Offer size of SGD 800 million.

Hays enumerates tips for employees on how to snag their ideal careers.

More smaller-sized units being transacted in Q3 according to DTZ

Willie Tham, currently the Chief Executive Officer of HSBC in Thailand, will assume the post effective January 2011.

Singapore moved up from 18 to 14 on this year’s list of the world’s most expensive rents, with prime retail rent standing at US$ 473/ sf/annum.

The brokerage has set its STI target to 3,300 citing concerns that the government is likely to continue introducing measures to cool down the property market as well as the Monetary Authority of Singapore focusing on limiting growth in unit labour costs via a faster appreciation of the exchange rate.

Singapore was ranked 4th in terms of Grade A rental performance and considered the best in Asia Pacific alongside with Beijing. In the survey conducted by the Jones Land LaSalle on regional office rents, Singapore recorded a quarterly net effective rental growth of 10.9%. This helped increase the Asia Pacific Office Rental index by 1.8% in the third quarter.

Industrial production data for October will be another nail in the coffin on expectation of a technical recession in Singapore, according to DBS analysts. Firstly, we have pointed out even before the 3Q advance estimates that we do not expect a technical recession in 2H10. And last week’s October NODX figure dealt the first blow to all those recession talks. The headline export figure rose by a massive 34.5% (5.8% MoM sa) on account of turnaround in both electronics and pharmaceutical export sales. And what is required right now is an industrial output growth of more than 30% for the month, which will essentially bury all the recession talks. Specifically, a 33.3% YoY expansion has been penciled into our forecast as we expect both key electronics and the biomedical segments to deliver the goods. That will provide some much need growth juice to the overall manufacturing growth and drag the economy from the deep negative end of the growth spectrum back to the positive territory in the final quarter. We expect the economy to grow by about solid 11% QoQ saar in the fourth quarter, up from the record contraction of 18.7% in 3Q10. A turnaround in manufacturing growth will be the crucial tie breaker for that to happen.