Bizview: Today's top business news
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Singapore's economic growth probably slowed in the fourth quarter as sluggish global demand weighed on the manufacturing sector, a Reuters poll showed. Gross domestic product (GDP) likely expanded 1.3 per cent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier.
Noble Group's chief executive has written to staff to say the Singapore-listed commodity trader's financials were improving and did not warrant Tuesday's "unexpected" move by Moody's Investors Service to downgrade its credit rating to junk status.
The chief executive of the recently-merged Ascendas-Singbridge will join the board of Ascendas Real Estate Investment Trust (A-Reit) with effect from Friday (Jan 1). Mr Miguel Ko, 62, will join the board of Ascendas Funds Management as vice-chairman and non-executive director.
Sembcorp Industries has formed a joint venture with a state-owned Chinese company to invest RMB925 million (S$202 million) in a power plant project in Chongqing.
Offshore engineering group Triyards has secured contracts to build two oil barges worth NT$716 million (S$30.8 million) from a new client, Taiwan state-owned oil and gas company CPC Corporation. The barges are to be delivered in the second quarter of its 2018 financial year, Triyards said in a filing to the Singapore Exchange on Wednesday (Dec 30).
Malaysia's second-largest pension fund is planning a £270 million (S$565.2 million) sale of an office building in central London, responding to a government call to repatriate funds to prop up the country's ailing stock and currency markets.
Indonesia will start trading bond futures as early as the first quarter of 2016 and introduce new rules for foreign venture capitals, officials at the Financial Services Authority (OJK) said on Wednesday.
China's central bank has suspended at least three foreign banks from conducting some foreign exchange business until the end of March, three sources who had seen the suspension notices told Reuters on Wednesday (Dec 30).
Julius Baer Group Ltd, Switzerland's third- largest wealth manager, said it expects to pay about US$547 million (S$771.4 million) to settle a U.S. investigation of how it helped Americans evade taxes, clearing the way for other Swiss banks to resolve similar criminal probes.
