(SINGAPORE) If there’s one thing that has characterised the Horizon Towers saga, it’s the number of twists and turns that have emerged - and yesterday’s hearing before the Strata Titles Board (STB) was no exception.

The session marked the start of the resumption of a previous hearing, which had stalled on Aug 3 when STB decided Horizon Towers’ application for a collective sale order was defective. The High Court subsequently overturned the board’s decision and sent the application back to STB.

Yesterday’s sitting, however, was anything but a straightforward continuation of that earlier session.

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Oil prices and financial volatility are concerns but other drivers of growth still intact, says MAS.

(SINGAPORE) After four years of robust above-trend growth, Singapore faces a rather ‘more uncertain’ outlook next year, says the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), citing high oil prices and the chances of further bouts of financial volatility.

And as investors turn cautious amid lingering uncertainties over the US sub-prime crisis, Singapore’s property, wealth advisory and capital markets - the activities that saw much euphoria and froth in growth this year - will likely slow down in 2008. But other domestic sectors should still see healthy growth, and the economy, overall, revert to its medium-term trend potential of 4-6 per cent, MAS says.

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American consumer opinion about borrowing costs suggests bonds are a bargain.

The real mavens in the US bond market may be your next-door neighbours, and they say now’s the time to buy Treasuries. Twenty per cent of Americans who say it’s a bad time to buy a house cite high interest rates as a reason, according to a monthly survey of consumers by the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. That threshold has been exceeded five other times since 1988, each followed by a rally in Treasuries.

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They’re mum on whether it’s a good time to buy, but agree S’pore fundamentals are pretty robust, reports GENEVIEVE CUA

Property: boom or bust? This was the intriguing question to which a capacity turnout of about 170 investors recently sought answers, at a dinner hosted by financial advisory firm ipac. The good news is that the experts at the evening’s panel do not foresee a bubble in the offing, based on three presentations - albeit with some concern expressed by Jones Lang LaSalle’s head of research, Chua Yang Liang.

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The median CPF member holds three times more in HDB housing equity than CPF cash holdings.

A new scheme making annuities compulsory for Central Provident Fund (CPF) members has been greeted quite negatively by the public.

A smoother road for retirees: HDB can play a financial intermediary role for the elderly and the government should also help citizens monetise their savings locked into HDB housing at the end of their working lives

The scheme involves setting aside a small portion of the Minimum Sum to buy the annuity. When the individual reaches a certain age, say 75 or 80, the annuity gives a monthly payout for the rest of his life. The annuity is a form of longevity insurance.

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First quarterly loss in 5 years, investment bank unlikely to break even in Q4.

(ZURICH) UBS AG reported a higher-than-expected third-quarter loss after hefty writedowns on sub-prime-related investments, but said it expects to turn in a group profit in the last quarter.

Mr Rohner: ‘We are taking steps to strengthen our market risk management.’

The Swiss bank, which took charges of 4.2 billion Swiss francs (S$5.22 billion) on sub-prime-related losses in fixed income in the third quarter, said yesterday its investment bank was unlikely to break even in the final quarter.

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Acer Computer International is selling its building at International Business Park in Jurong East.

The property is said to be worth about $75-80 million, or $337 to $360 psf of existing net lettable area (NLA).

The property, a high- tech business park development, was completed about 10 years ago on a site leased from JTC Corp for 30 years with an option to renew for a further 30 years.

Acer is paying JTC an annual land rent of $715,469, with an escalation of 4 per cent a year (as at Q3 2007). Acer Building’s new owner will likely pay JTC a slightly higher land rent each year.

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Bidders included smaller developers, contractors and engineering firms.

The mood continued to be buoyant at two property auctions yesterday held by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and DTZ Debenham Tie Leung.

The URA auctioned 12 sub-divided landed housing plots near Sembawang Beach which can be developed into a total of 57 landed homes.

The auction fetched a total sum of $37.09 million, working out to about $285 per square foot of land area on an average basis.

The bidders included mostly smaller developers, contractors and engineering firms but also some individuals, like local advertising guru Lim Sau Hoong.

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Singapore will see if it can help Bombay First initiative.

The city of Mumbai can be developed into a first-class financial and logistics hub. And Singapore will look to see if it can aid a private sector-led initiative that aims to do that, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said on his second day in India.

Speaking to government officials and heads of state enterprises in Mumbai yesterday to share the policies and strategies that Singapore has adopted for its development, MM Lee said that Singapore has succeeded because of its first-world infrastructure - its airport, seaport, telecommunications and road networks.

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CapitaMall Trust, Singapore’s largest real estate investment trust (Reit), may raise as much as $500 million in a share sale to pay debt and fund acquisitions.

‘The funds provide financial flexibility to pursue yield accretive acquisition opportunities.’
- Pua Seck Guan

CapitaMall will sell as many as 137.7 million new shares to institutional investors at between $3.63 and $3.70 apiece, it said in a statement late on Monday, representing a discount of as much as 3.5 per cent from Monday’s closing price of $3.76.

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