Asian Central Banks Cut Rates
Central banks in Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong cut interest rates on Thursday in steps that closely follow America’s and Europe’s policy response to the financial crisis. In an extraordinary policy meeting Thursday morning just two weeks after its last rate cut, which had reversed course following a four-year rate raising cycle, Taiwan’s Central Bank of China lowered the benchmark discount rate to 3.25% from 3.5%. The decision came less than a day after central banks in the US, Canada, the EU, the UK and Switzerland lowered rates by half a percentage point. The Bank of Korea unexpectedly cut interest rate for the first time in four years to shore up the troubled economy. In Hong Kong, the territory’s monetary authority followed the Fed, lowering its benchmark lending rate by 50 basis points to 2% in a bid to improve liquidity on the interbank market.

CapitaLand’s Ascott Expands Presence In Gulf Region With New Contract
CapitaLand’s subsidiary, the Ascott Group, has been awarded a contract by Raffles City Bahrain Fund to manage a 200-unit serviced residence in Manama City, Bahrain. The serviced residence will be the company’s first flagship property in the Gulf region to be operated under its premier Ascott brand. Schedule for opening in 2011, it will be the company’s second serviced residence in Bahrain and its fourth in the Gulf region.

HTL Obtains Approval To Establish Subsidiary In Vietnam
HTL International has been issued an Investment Certificate from the Binh Duong Industrial Zones Authority of Vietnam to establish a wholly-owned subsidiary to undertake the manufacturing of sofas and upholstery. The certificate, valid for 48 years will commence on 24 September 2008. The company will inject US$4m capital, to be fulfilled by way of cash and partly by transfer of plant and machinery.

ECS Clinches New Distributorship Agreement
ECS Holdings has, through its unit ECS Computers (Asia), been appointed by Intermec to be its Value-Added Distributor for the entire range of Intermec mobile computers, bar code printers, and media solutions deployed in the supply chain environment. The distribution agreement, which is immediately effective for Singapore and will be subsequently rolled out to other South East Asian countries, will add a new dimension to ECS’ current product offerings.

China Kunda’s IPO Shares Fully Subsribed
China Kunda Technology Holdings, a provider of precision Moulds, Plastic Injection Parts and In-Mould Decoration products to the electronics, electrical, automobile and specialised devices industries, has received full subscription for its IPO shares, raising net proceeds of approximately $11.64m.

Ultro Technologies Disposes Business Segment
Ultro Technologies has inked a sale and purchase agreement with Serial System to dispose the business and products which forms the inventory of the distribution business relating to the electronic components distributed by the company and some other products as specified in the agreement for approximately $1.8m. The sell-off is due to reason being that the distribution business has been making losses in the past three years and the poor performance is expected to continue in the foreseeable future.