SYDNEY, July 27--AsiaNet/InfoQuest
NZ PUNTERS...
SYDNEY: Centrebet's Kiwi punters are betting on Labour's
student loans policy being an election winner. The election
bookmaker's odds on Labour providing the prime minister
following the September 17 election have fallen from 1.90
(10-11) to 1.83 (5-6) since Helen Clark's policy
announcement.
http://www.centrebet.com
FINANCIAL RESULTS...
NEW YORK: Hudson Highland Group, Inc., one of the world's
leading providers of specialized professional staffing,
retained executive search and human capital solutions, has
announced financial results for the second quarter and six
months ended June 30, 2005.
http://www.hhgroup.com
PHILIPPINES TOURISM...
LAS VEGAS: WoW! Technologies, Inc. a privately held provider
of pre-paid, PIN-activated debit cards, has signed a Memorandum
of Agreement with the Philippine Department of Tourism for the
joint promotion of the Philippines as a prime tourist
destination in Asia.
http://www.wowcardservices.com
ADDITIONAL FINANCING...
MOUNTAIN VIEW: PeerMe, Inc., a peer-to-peer communications
technology company enabling secure internet communications, has
announced that it has secured an additional $1.5 million in new
financing from Japanese and North American angel investors.
http://www.PeerMe.com
SAMOA RUGBY...
BOSTON: PUMA has announced the signing of the Samoa Rugby
Union National Team,Manu Samoa. Starting October 15, 2005, PUMA
will be the official supplier to all the teams associated with
the Samoa Rugby Union.
http://www.puma.com
HEDGE FUNDS...
NEW YORK: Which brokerage firms do hedge funds believe
provide the best Asian equity research? To find out, Alpha
retabulated the results of Institutional Investor's 2005
All-Asia Research Team, counting only those votes cast by hedge
fund managers. The voting, by representatives of funds with an
estimated aggregate gross exposure to Asian equities of almost
$55 billion, turned up winners in 17 of the 29 industry,
country and macro research categories in the complete All-Asia
Research Team.
http://www.institutionalinvestor.com/alpha
FICOSA ACQUIRES...
BARCELONA: Ficosa International, a multinational automotive
systems and components company, and Fractus, the pioneer
developer of fractal antenna technology, have negotiated an
agreement in which Ficosa has become sole proprietor of
Advanced Automotive Antennas (A3), a joint venture company
created by Ficosa and Fractus in 2002 to develop fractal-based
antennas for the automotive sector.
http://www.fractus.com
http://www.ficosa.com
FLO FORUM...
FREMONT: The FLO Forum, a non-profit industry association
with its members, has announced the creation of the FLO Forum,
an organization composed of wireless industry leaders that will
work together in order to promote the development of products
and services related to the delivery of advanced multimedia
services to wireless devices around the world using FLO
(Forward Link Only) technology.
www.floforum.org
OFFICIAL PARTNER...
NEW BRUNSWICK: Johnson & Johnson has announced that the
Company and its subsidiaries have made a multi-national
commitment to the Olympic Movement and have become an Official
Partner of the Beijing 2008 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the
Official Health Care Products Sponsor of the Torino 2006
Olympic Winter Games, and the Official Health Care Products
Partner of the United States Olympic Committee.
F1 AGREEMENT...
SINGAPORE: ESPN STAR Sports, Asia's number one sports
broadcaster has once again captured pole position winning a
five-year deal to broadcast the FIA Formula OneTM (F1) World
Championships across all its major territories in Asia
excluding China, in addition to full and exclusive TV rights
for India.
S.KOREA'S RATINGS...
HONG KONG: Fitch Ratings, the international rating agency,
has affirmed South Korea's Long-term foreign and local currency
ratings at 'A' and 'AA-' (AA minus), respectively and the
Short-term rating at 'F1'. The Country Ceiling was also
affirmed at 'A+'. The Outlook on the ratings is Stable.
www.fitchratings.com
(AsiaNet is a consortium of leading news agencies
distributing unedited, translated news releases for worldwide
clients. Visit www.asianetnews.net for full-text versions.)