News Round Up

Monday, March 26th 2007, 6:36AM

Own home not substitute for retirement savings A Treasury study of household savings has found that home ownership should not be viewed as a substitute for adequate levels of retirement saving. [MORE]

Aberdeen to buy some Deutsche funds
Aberdeen Asset Management has entered into an agreement with Deutsche Australia to acquire certain Australian fund management businesses for a cash consideration that is not expected to exceed A$148 million.

Promina takeover boosts Suncorp

Standard & Poor's has raised its long-term ratings on Suncorp-Metway, and its related entities to 'A+', following the implementation of the merger with Promina.

The 'A-1' short-term ratings on Suncorp and its entities were affirmed and the outlook on all the entities of the Suncorp group of companies (see list) is positive.

Concurrently, the ratings on Promina and its core operating subsidiaries were affirmed at 'A' and 'A+' respectively, and the outlook for both is positive.

It says the ratings on Suncorp entities will benefit from an increased scale and diversity of operations, and a more material involvement in non-life insurance operations.

The positive outlook on Suncorp entities reflects an expectation that the combined group will be able to contend with material integration challenges.

St John offer now unconditional
St Laurence Property & Finance says its takeover offer for all of the parcels of shares and mortgage bonds owned by property syndicate St John Balanced Property Fund is now unconditional.

The company has reached its 50.1% acceptance rate. St Laurence Property & Finance executive chairman Kevin Podmore says the company is now holding over 56% of the parcels issued by St John.

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