LONDON/SINGAPORE, April 8 (Reuters) – Aviva <AV.L>, Britain’s No.2 insurer, is to re-enter the Asian general insurance market five years after selling its non-life operations there, two sources familiar with the matter said.

Aviva is preparing to announce the move imminently, and could issue a statement as early as Friday, one of the sources said.

Aviva quit the Asian general insurance market in 2005 when it sold its non-life operations in the region to Japan’s Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance for $450 million.

The British insurer’s decision to launch a new Asian general insurance business comes after a non-compete agreement with Mitsui Sumitomo expired earlier this year.

European and U.S. insurers are keen to expand their presence in Asia, seen as one of the world’s fastest-growing financial services markets, thanks to fast-rising household incomes on the back of strong economic growth.

Prudential <PRU.L>, Britain’s biggest insurer, last month effectively staked its future on Asia with a $35.5 billion bid for the local operations of bailed out U.S. insurer AIG <AIG.N>, in what would be the insurance sector’s biggest ever takeover. [ID:nNLDE6200C] (Writing by Myles Neligan; Editing by Rupert Winchester)

SINGAPORE/NEW DELHI, March 11 (Reuters) – Indian hospital chain Fortis Healthcare <FOHE.BO> will buy 23.9 percent of Singapore’s Parkway Holdings <PARM.SI> from U.S. buyout firm TPG Capital in an expansion drive into Asia and the Middle East.

The $685 million deal will give Fortis a foothold in Singapore and Malaysia and make it the biggest private hospital network in Asia, it said.

The move continues an overseas acquisition push by Indian companies looking for new markets and know-how. Top Indian mobile carrier Bharti Airtel <BRTI.BO> is in talks to buy the African operations of Kuwait’s Zain <ZAIN.KW> for $9 billion.

“Strategically, it is a very good deal for the company and the healthcare sector,” said Bino Pathiparampil, healthcare analyst at IIFL Capital in Mumbai.

“This deal takes Fortis to a different level and will raise the brand equity of the company in India as well,” he said.

Fortis intends to move into other parts of Asia and the Middle East, Chairman Malvinder Mohan Singh told reporters.

“Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand are markets we would like to evaluate,” Singh told Reuters in Singapore.

SINGAPORE, March 5 (Reuters) – Singapore’s biggest sovereign wealth fund, GIC, said it converted its UBS <UBSN.VX> notes into ordinary shares, suffering a paper loss of about $5 billion.

The Government of Singapore Investment Corp [GIC.UL] had invested 11 billion Swiss francs ($10.22 billion) in mandatory convertible notes in UBS to support the Swiss bank during the financial crisis.

GIC did not provide more details, but a filing it made to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission early last month showed the original conversion price would be 47.7 Swiss francs, two-thirds more than UBS’s last share price of 15.86 francs.

GIC had earned about 2 billion francs from a 9 percent coupon over the last two years, which partially compensated for the sharp erosion in UBS’ share price.

“GIC confirms the conversion,” a spokeswoman for the Singapore wealth fund said in response to Reuters’ queries.

The filing had said GIC would exchange the mandatory convertible notes for 230.7 million ordinary UBS shares on March 5. GIC would have a stake of 6.6 percent in UBS after conversion, making it the Swiss bank’s biggest shareholder.

GIC, led by Deputy Chairman Tony Tan, is becoming active again in global markets after its portfolio shrank by more than a fifth in its last financial year as it was hit by the financial crisis that drove down the value of its financial holdings.

SINGAPORE, March 3 (Reuters) – Singapore Exchange <SGXL.SI> plans to launch trading of Asian companies’ American Depository Receipts (ADRs) in coming months in an effort to attract new investors and boost trading volumes, sources said on Wednesday.

SGX, Asia’s second-most valuable listed bourse, plans to start with ADRs of Chinese firms before broadening the list to Indian companies, two sources familiar with the matter said. They declined to be named because the information was not public.

The preliminary list of ADRs includes those of U.S.-listed Chinese stocks such as NetEase.com <NTES.O>, Shanda Interactive <SNDA.O> and Baidu <BIDU.O>, according to a draft SGX factsheet seen by Reuters.

Other ADRs on the list are Suntech Power <STP.N>, CTrip.com International <CTRP.O>, Aluminum Corporation of China <ACH.N> and Home Inns & Hotels Management <HMIN.O>.

The plan to quote the ADRs on SGX is subject to regulatory approval, the factsheet said.

“It’s something we are working on but we are not able to share at this stage,” an SGX spokeswoman said.

SGX probably expects to get approval in the next month or two since it has published and distributed draft factsheets, one of the sources said.

SINGAPORE, Feb 24 (Reuters) – Las Vegas Sands <LVS.N> will open the first phase of its Singapore casino on April 27, earlier than expected, bringing into play a project CEO Sheldon Adelson says will generate $1 billion in annual profits.

The $5.5 billion Marina Bay Sands casino will start operating along with 963 hotel rooms, part of the shopping mall and convention centre, and several dining outlets, Las Vegas Sands said in a statement on Wednesday.

The opening of the Marina Bay casino follows on the heels of the opening of Singapore’s first casino, rival Genting Singapore’s <GENS.SI> Resorts World at Sentosa, on Feb 14. [ID:nSGE61D01T]

“Given Marina Bay Sands’ centralised location and possibly a higher quality product offering, Resorts World will likely see challenges in attracting casino patronage,” said Deutsche Bank analyst Aun-Ling Chia in a note to clients.

“Resorts World needs to ramp up fast to fully leverage on the first-mover advantage,” Chia said.

The Marina Bay Sands occupies a waterfront site at the edge of Singapore’s central business district, and was the more fiercely contested licence when Singapore gave the green light to casinos in 2005 in a bid to attract more tourists.

News of the Singapore opening date comes amid pressure on the share prices of Las Vegas casino operators due to falling room rates and on worries about MGM Mirage’s <MGM.N> newly opened $8.5 billion, 6,000-room CityCenter project. [ID:nN18182194]

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Barclays Wealth, the private banking arm of British bank Barclays <BARC.L>, has hired another three bankers from UBS <UBSN.VX>, adding to the 10 who were recruited in August last year.

Vikram Malhotra, who led a team of UBS bankers in Singapore and Hong Kong serving millionaires of Indian origin, joined Barclays Wealth on Monday as head of South Asia where he will play a similar role, the British bank said in a statement.

He will report to Srinivas Siripurapu, Barclays Wealth’s head of Southeast and South Asia, who was his previous boss at UBS. Siripurapu left UBS in August last year with nine members of his team, and was replaced by Malhotra.

Two other ex-UBS bankers, Jagdish Kale and Rohit Nanani, will join Barclays on Feb 24 as directors.

Vinay Gandhi, formerly global head of the non-resident Indian business at JPMorgan Private Bank, has replaced Malhotra, a UBS spokeswoman said.

Asia’s private banking industry, which suffered a spate of layoffs at the end of 2008 and early 2009, has recovered in recent months and banks are actively searching for experienced staff to tap the region’s growing ranks of millionaires.

In October, RBS Coutts, the private banking arm of Royal Bank of Scotland <RBS.L>, lost over 70 of its staff in Singapore, or nearly a third of its headcount, with many leaving to join Swiss bank BSI.

MELBOURNE/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Australian miner Macarthur Coal <MCC.AX> offered to buy local rival Gloucester Coal <GCL.AX> in an all-share deal worth $591.3 million, creating Australia’s biggest independent coal miner at a time of strong Asian demand.

Macarthur, whose leading shareholders are China’s CITIC Resources Holdings Ltd <1205.HK> and steel giants ArcelorMittal SA <ISPA.AS> and POSCO <005490.KS>, will issue 0.84 of its shares for every Gloucester share, said Singapore-listed commodities firm Noble Group <NOBG.SI>, Gloucester’s main shareholder.

The share offer is at a 25 percent premium to Gloucester’s closing price on Monday.

The deal would be the latest in a shifting Australian resources landscape. In August, China’s Yanzhou Coal Mining Co <1171.HK> agreed to buy coal miner Felix Resources for $2.9 billion, a deal approved by Australia with some conditions in October.

If Noble accepts the offer, it will also sell stakes in two other Australian miners to Macarthur in exchange for new shares, giving Noble about 24 percent of the enlarged company.

“Macarthur has said for some time it would like to broaden its production base,” said Andrew Pedler, an analyst at Wilson HTM in Brisbane.

“The types of coal and the flexibility that Gloucester has provides a different set of markets, and would give Macarthur the broader product range it has been seeking.”

SINGAPORE/HONG KONG (Reuters) – Las Vegas Sands, the world’s No. 2 casino operator by market value, could completed all its planned developments on Macau’s Cotai strip in five years, sooner than expected, hugely expanding its presence in the world’s biggest gambling market.

Billionaire Sheldon Adelson, the founder and CEO of Sands, said business in Las Vegas was recovering and could return to normal levels by 2011. He brushed off suggestions its Singapore casino project could be delayed by months.

Sands — which last month raised $2.5 billion from listing its Macau unit, Sands China — plans to build five properties on the Cotai strip, a swathe of reclaimed land some Macau developers have touted as the next Las Vegas strip.

Those properties, including two that are half built, would complement the firm’s two existing casinos in Macau, one of which is the Venetian Macau, the world’s largest.

“We could finish all the (Macau) properties easily within five years,” Adelson said at a news conference in Singapore. “It depends on how fast we get approvals from the government.”

Sands suspended construction of its Cotai projects due to the global financial crisis but has since resumed work.

Aaron Fischer, CLSA’s head of Asian consumer and gaming, said he was surprised by Adelson’s bullish forecast. “It’s quite aggressive,” he said. “Five years is a bit earlier than I thought, but it’s a good thing.”

SINGAPORE, Dec 8 (Reuters) – Private equity firm Actis and Singapore oil services firm KS Energy <KSTL.SI> on Tuesday announced plans for a joint venture that will distribute parts and equipment to oil companies in Asia and the Middle East.

The deal, which values the joint venture at S$320 million ($231 million), will involve Actis investing S$142 million in cash and and KS Energy taking private two Singapore-listed units and injecting them into the venture.

KS Energy, which is controlled by Kris Wiluan, Indonesia’s 40th richest businessmen according to Forbes magazine, will also transfer some of its directly owned businesses to the joint venture.

Following the consolidation of the businesses, Actis will own 44.4 percent of the joint venture called KS Distribution, while KS Energy will control 55 percent.

“We are very positive about the global oil and gas story,” Actis partner and Southeast Asia head Gary Addison told a media briefing in Singapore. “The easy oil is gone and the costs associated with finding the more difficult oil has to be higher.”

Addison also said it was part of the KS Energy-Actis joint venture’s medium-term strategy to grow the business through acquisitions, when asked if Actis was still keen to buy other oil services companies.

Actis had earlier this year sought to buy a controlling stake in Franklin Offshore International, an oil services firm that had been put on the block by UK private equity firm 3i <III.L>. The sale was subsequently scrapped. [ID:nHKG375108]