COMMERCIAL BANKING

DBS Group comfortable with their exposure to US mortgage debt.

In late August 2007 Singapore's central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, issued a second warning to banks to appraise their exposure to US mortgage debt.

The warning was prompted by the DBS Group's announcement that its direct exposure to collateralised debt obligations (CDOs) was nearly double that previously announced.

DBS emphasised in their statement of 27 August that of their total SG$2.4bn holding in CDOs only 12% were directly exposed to US sub-prime mortgages. Their total CDO exposure amounted to only 1% of overall assets.

CONFECTIONERY MARKET

Cadbury-Schweppes acquires Japanese throat candy manufacturer.

Subsequent to their acquisition of Adams, Cadbury-Schweppes has made significant market share gains in the Japanese chewing gum market.

In July 2007 they acquired Sansei Foods Co. Ltd. which sells sugar-free functional candy (primarily throat lozenges) in Japan under the Teicalo and Xylicrystal brands. They have an approximate 4% market share of the total candy market and 14% of the throat candy market in which Cadbury-Schweppes is represented by Halls.

WINE MARKET

In Canada wine sales have surpassed those of spirits for the first time.

The Canadian wine industry underwent a significant transformation in the late 1980s and early 1990s as growers introduced wine quality grapes to replace the native Labrusca grape.

Between 1997 and 2005 the industry's real GDP grew at an average 7.1% as opposed to 3.0% for Canadian industry as a whole.

Statistics Canada reports that the value of wines sold in 2005 surpassed the value of spirits for the first time but at 25.2% still lagged beers which represented 50.4% of the alcoholic beverage market.