Bizview: Today's top business news

The Securities Investors Association Singapore (SIAS), acting on behalf of long-term minority shareholders of Tiger Airways, has written to the board of Singapore Airlines (SIA) "to put forward their case for a revised offer" for Tiger Airways.

The outlook for offshore rig owners just got a little more gloomy as oil explorers end more contracts for drilling vessels to save much-needed cash during the worst market crash in a generation.

UK bank Standard Chartered (StanChart) could be acquired by a white knight as its recovery could prove to be "challenging", according to broker CLSA, which upgraded shares of the Asia-focused lender on that possibility.

DBS Group Holdings and Julius Baer are seen as potential bidders for Barclays Asian private wealth business, valued at about US$600 million (S$848.2 million), sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Barclays is weighing the sale, the sources said, even though a formal sale process had not begun.

All 10 major Asian currencies are forecast by strategists to fall against the US dollar for a third year. They blame China. The Singapore dollar, Indonesia's rupiah, South Korea's won and all the seven other major Asian currencies are projected to decline the most in 2016, with India's rupee seen depreciating the least.

Producer of films and TV/online content, mm2 Asia, has aquired a majority stake in tech start-up Millinillion for about S$350,000. The Catalist-listed company is buying 466,667 new ordinary shares in Millinillion, and will own 70 per cent of the issued share capital of the start-up.

Japan's central bank announced an unexpected round of new stimulus measures on Friday (Dec 18) to complement its vast asset-buying scheme, pushing the yen down sharply and giving a brief boost to Tokyo share prices.

China's home-price recovery spread to more cities in November, especially smaller ones, after Chinese authorities rolled out easing measures targeting regions with a surplus of unsold homes.