2008-Jul-13 - PRESS DIGEST - Singapore newspapers - July 9

SINGAPORE, July 9 (Reuters) - The following are stories from Singapore newspapers on Wednesday. Reuters has not verified these stories.

THE STRAITS TIMES - Sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings [TEM.UL] has appointed Swedish businessman Marcus Wallenberg to its board. Wallenberg, a member of the Swedish family that owns stakes in some of Sweden's top firms, is chairman of Electrolux and deputy chairman of Ericsson.

- Turnover for the Great Singapore Sale's first month from May 23 to June 21 was up 27 percent compared to last year, according to credit card firm MasterCard, with shoppers spending more on food, massages and spa treatments.

- Despite a slowing property market, developers of a luxury condominium -- with special lifts that allow residents to park their cars in front of their high-rise units -- has been released for sale at an average of S$3,800 per square foot, or between S$8 million ($5.87 million) to S$12 million per unit.

BUSINESS TIMES

- Developers are paying property agents bigger commissions - in some cases up to 2 percent or almost double of what was offered a year ago - to push their new residential project launches as the environment for selling homes becomes more challenging and agents work harder to close sales.

- Aviva (AV.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) unit Morley Fund Management is planning more property deals in Asia as it aims to build a $10 billion real estate portfolio across the Asia-Pacific in the next four to five years, said its head of Asia real estate Nick Ridgewell.

The asset manager now has $1.3 billion committed to real estate in the region, and debuted in the Asia ex-Japan property market in June with the acquisition of Commerce Point from City Developments (CTDM.SI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) for about S$180 million.

Source: www.reuters.com