Asian Stocks Fall On Earnings Concerns
Asian stocks declined, a day after the region’s benchmark index rallied the most in a decade, as concern earnings will deteriorate overshadowed a US$2 trillion global push to rescue banks. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index declined 1.3% to 95.37 as of 10.25 am in Tokyo, led by commodity producers and consumer discretionary stocks. The index has dropped 40% this year on concern frozen credit markets will trigger a recession. All benchmark indexes in the region fell. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average lost 1% at 9,355.17. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures slid 1.3%. The S&P fell 0.5% to 998.01 yesterday, after gaining the most since the 1930s the previous day.

Nomura Close To Complete Acquisition Of Lehman’s APAC Franchise
Nomura Holdings, had closed acquisition of most parts of Lehman Brothers’ Asia Pacific franchise including Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, India, Thailand and Japan, following conditions being met in sequence in each country. The majority of Lehman Brothers’ employees in Asia Pacific have accepted Nomura’s offer of employment. This increased presence will signigicantly enhance Nomura’s capabilities in the Asia Pacific region.

Apex-Pal Opens First Japanese Café In Joint Venture
Apex-Pal International, together with Philippines franchisee, Mr Hubert Young, has opened Kohi Ten – the first Japanese siphon bar café to be opened in Singapore. It aims to fill a niche market for freshly brewed gourmet coffee and the company believes it will gain first mover advantage with its first café concept providing siphon-brew coffee in Singapore. The demand is expected to grow as similar concepts are already quite established in other countries such as Hong Kong.

AsiaPharm Divests Guangzhou Lifetech Jiuzhoutong New/Special Drug Company
AsiaPharm Group has through its unit, Shandong Luye Pharmaceutical, inked a sale and purchase agreement to divest its 100% equity interest in Guangzhou Lifetech Jiuzhoutong New/Special Drug Company to an independent third party for cash Rmb3.3m. This move is part of the company’s restructuring process to unlock additional value for the company’s shareholders.

Wilmar International Acquires 60% Interest In Raffles Shipping
Wilmar International has through its unit, Wilmar Ship Holdings, acquired a 60% interest in Raffles Shipping Corporation (RSC) from its Founder and CEO Captain Kenny Beh and his associates for cash US$9.6m. The acquisition will take effect on 1 November 2008. RSC will manage and operate company’s fleet of liquid oil tankers, provide ancillary support services like bunkering, full technical management and act as freight managers for the company.

OCBC To Abstain From Take-Over Financial Advisory Work For 6 Months
OCBC Bank has voluntarily proposed to abstain from undertaking financial advisory work on take-overs for 6 months from 1 September 2008 and to donate up to $1m to sponsor education program in fraud awareness and detection. The decision came after the Securities Industry Council has found the bank to be in breach of certain rules of the Singapore Code of Take-Overs and Mergers in relation to the performance of its duty as the financial advisor for the conditional cash offer by Asia Pacific Links for Jade Technologies Holdings.

Global Voice Provides Fiber|Nex Solution To Xchanging
Global Voice Group, Europe’s foremost provider of mission-critical, high performance data services, has concluded an agreement with Xchanging Transaction Bank GmbH, under which the company has implemented a private fiber network in Frankfurt, connecting Xchanging’s datacenter with their disaster recovery site. This network provides Xchanging with a secure platform for the delivery of services to their customers in the finance industry.