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Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Save On Corporate Taxes - Move To Singapore

Singapore cut corporate taxes for the first time in three years, narrowing the gap with Hong Kong as the city-state seeks to lure more international financial services and technology companies.

The government will reduce the maximum tax rate payable by companies to 18 percent from 20 percent from the 2008 year of assessment, Second Minister for Finance Tharman Shanmugaratnam said today.

Singapore will have shaved eight percentage points off the corporate tax rate since 2000. In the same period, Hong Kong's tax rate rose from 16 percent, while Ireland has a rate of 12.5 percent. In Eastern and Central Europe, Slovakia and Poland's corporate tax rate is 19 percent.
-Bloomberg

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Record Gold Sales

Gold sales hit a record $65.3bn last year in spite of a 10 per cent fall in demand in tonnage terms, according to the World Gold Council, which released its fourth-quarter report on the market on Thursday.

Rapid growth in the popularity of gold exchange traded funds means that ETFs have become the main driver of investment demand growth. The launch of several new gold exchange traded funds helped inflows into ETFs rise by 27 per cent, to 265 tonnes, last year.

Investment in gold ETFs overtook demand for gold bars, which fell by 18 per cent last year, to 214.5 tonnes. In total, identifiable investment demand rose by 7 per cent last year, to 636.7m tonnes.
-Financial Times

Thursday, February 08, 2007

BHP's Stock Buyback

BHP Billiton Ltd., the world's biggest mining company, will buy back $10 billion of shares after higher metal prices drove profit to a record.

The company's shares rose 5.9 percent in Australia, the biggest gain in more than four years. Net income jumped 41 percent to $6.2 billion in the first half ended Dec. 31, from $4.36 billion a year ago, the Melbourne-based company said in a statement. Sales rose 22 percent to $22 billion.
-Bloomberg