Old Chang Kee to expand operations

Listed food retailer Old Chang Kee plans to open 22 new outlets in the next three years in Asia Pacific and sees 15 per cent revenue growth in 2008. William Lim, CEO of Old Chang Kee, told reporters in an interview on Wednesday the firm is focused on expanding its business in Singapore, with 13 of the new retail stores opening this year in the city-state.

‘There are a lot of future events that will springboard our future business - Formula One, the integrated resorts and Youth Olympic Games,’ Mr Lim said.

But Mr Lim said Old Chang Kee is taking its time with overseas expansion, with only 9 outlets in the pipelines so far in Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and China. (story)

CPF retirement accounts benefit those earning under $40,000

Workers with less than $40,000 in their CPF retirement accounts when they turn 55 will be exempted from the new CPF Life scheme, as their balances are not enough for payouts to last a lifetime. A quarter of the first cohort to be covered - that is, those who turn 50 this year - will fall into this category.

But they can choose to opt into the scheme, and will get help to do so, said the committee that designed the scheme.

It said there had been public feedback that those with insufficient CPF savings could be helped to join the scheme.

Said National Longevity Insurance Committee chairman Lim Pin on Tuesday: ‘We also strongly believe in the value and importance of this scheme that we have made a request for the (Manpower) Minister, the Government… to consider giving some assistance to enable people who do not now have the threshold sum of $40,000 to join the scheme. That will be handled.’ (story)

David Rasif’s legal troubles piling up

The high Court on Monday issued a warrant of arrest against a friend of David Rasif who had helped the fugitive lawyer move $985,000 to Vietnam.The development came at the end of a hearing into a multi-million dollar civil suit brought by an American couple to recover some of the $10.7 million they had entrusted to Rasif’s firm to buy a house.

Rasif, last seen in Bangkok in June 2006, is a wanted man after absconding with $12 million in clients’ funds.

The defendants include a high-end jewellery store where Rasif went on a $2 million shopping spree as well as pub owner Freddy Lim Soon Kiang, his long-time friend. When the trial began in June last year, the court heard that Mr Lim had opened a bank account in Ho Chi Minh City.

He helped Rasif move US$620,000 - the equivalent of S$985,180 at the time - from the clients’ account of his law firm to the Vietnam account. (story)

Massage and a murder

1 day after he was discovered, his clothes stained with blood, next to his Chinese lover, a Singapore hawker told police he killed the woman because she had stabbed him in the stomach, the High Court heard on Tuesday.From his hospital bed, Eu Lim Hoklai told investigators he strangled Madam Yu Hongjin until he fainted, following a fight on June 18, 2006. The statement was admitted as evidence on Tuesday during the second day of Eu’s trial for the capital charge of murder.

Eu said that even while talking on his mobile phone, he kept one hand around Madam Yu’s neck during a melee in her Ang Mo Kio massage parlour. (story)

Apple makes legal threats against iPhone selling stores

Next Christmas for sure, but not this one - if you hanker for a ‘legit’ iPhone, and have been checking out Sim Lim Square for it. That is because Apple, the maker of the cellphone popular in the United States and Europe, will only release it in Asia next year.

According to retailers, Apple theatened in an e-mail to go after them for illegally ‘unlocking’ parallel imported iPhones. The phones are unlocked by hacking into their software so that local SIM cards can be used.

Sim Lim Square retailers and even some online local sellers have stopped selling the gadget.

A retailer in Sim Lim Square said shops there, including his, received a warning e-mail from Apple about a month ago.

It threatened legal action should they continue to sell ‘hacked’ iPhones, which could make them liable for $1,000 per iPhone sold. (story)

Military rebels arrested as police storm hotel

Military rebels and their civilian supporters were arrested on Thursday after Philippine forces stormed a five-star hotel where they had been holed up, a reporter at the scene said. Heavily armed security forces marched the rebels, their arms raised behind their heads in surrender, from the second floor of the five-star Peninsula Hotel into its ruined lobby, the reporter witnessed.

Rebel leader Antonio Trillanes, a navy lieutenant who was elected a senator in May, was hauled into a prison bus along with former vice president Teofisto Guingona, a 79-year-old politician who was not hand cuffed.

Brigadier General Danilo Lim and the band of rebels he led into the hotel early Thursday were also taken into the bus between a phalanx of police. (story)

Singaporeans come to Malaysian worker’s aid

Mountain climber David Lim is among several people moved by the plight of Malaysian worker Abu Bakar Evos, who lost his legs in a horrific workplace accident this week. These people who called or e-mailed The Straits Times on reading about the 25-year-old odd-jobber’s plight said they wanted to help him rebuild his life after he recovers from his injuries.

Mr Abu’s left leg below his knee and his right foot were severed in a paper compactor at waste-paper recycling firm Likok in Defu Lane 4 on Tuesday. He had climbed into the compactor to clean it when the accident happened.

Mr Lim, 43, who was hit with the Guillain-Barre Syndrome - a rare, life-threatening disease that paralysed him for six months in 1998 - said: ‘I know what it’s like to lose the use of my limbs, but Mr Abu Bakar will have a bigger challenge because he has lost his legs.’ (story)

Genting founder passes away, stock stable

Share prices of listed entities in the Genting group had mild movements when news on the demise of its founder, Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong, broke shortly before lunch break yesterday.

Investment analysts contacted by StarBiz said there was no panic in the market when the investing public learned about the death of Lim.

They said such calmness was mainly because a clear succession plan had been put in place in the past three years or so.

“The demise of Lim is not expected to affect the daily operation of the Genting group,” said MIMB Investment Bank analyst Teh Kian Yong.

Kenanga Asset Management Sdn Bhd’s Chen Fan Fai said succession was not an issue to the family business.

(story)

We decide our own law

Workers’ Party chairman Sylvia Lim said Singapore is capable of dealing with rule of law issues on its own and does not need outside interference.

Ms Lim, a law lecturer, was a panellist at a full-day Rule of Law Symposium that ended the week-long International Bar Association (IBA) conference.

She was making a point about checks on executive power when she observed that much as she desired political reforms, these have to be pushed within the boundaries of the law. The election outcome must be respected.

And while the IBA and other global conferences are useful for Singapore to measure itself against international benchmarks on issues like rule of law, no external help is needed, she indicated, saying:

‘We Singaporeans are quite capable of deciding what kind of country we want…I don’t think we need anyone outside to canvass our agenda for us.’

(more)