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February 28, 2006
Hopewell Holdings could soon join other Hong Kong property developers packaging their assets for sale as real estate investment trusts.
Education chief Arthur Li has announced a series of measures to alleviate the pressure on teachers, improve the teaching of poorly performing children and allow for the introduction of small-class teaching in some schools. Esprit Holdings, the world's fifth most valuable clothing retailer, expects growth in comparative store sales to slow this fiscal year as it clears marked- down inventory in women's wear, a senior executive said. Kenneth Courtis, a top Goldman Sachs executive and economist who had a controversial role as an independent non-executive director of China's dominant offshore oil producer CNOOC, is expected to leave the United States investment bank at the end of next month. Hopewell Highway Infrastructure, a toll road operator in the Pearl River Delta region, plans to spend HK$1.43 billion to build two road projects, after first- half profit jumped 31 percent on higher traffic flow. Financial Secretary Henry Tang said his bid to expand yuan trading in Hong Kong is to pave the way for future economic development and has nothing to do with electioneering.
Barrister Kevin Egan and solicitor Andrew Lam Ping-cheung were yesterday accused of launching a campaign involving the court and the press to pressure the ICAC into releasing a woman who was a potential witness against their client.
The economic and trade cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking countries has made remarkable progress in recent years, said Vice Minister of Commerce Wei Jianguo. The new draft requires foreign insurance institutions to have at least 20 years of continuous experience in running an insurance business when applying for a license to set up a representative office in China. US cosmetics giant Avon Products Inc was awarded China's first licence for direct sales, after the country lifted a seven-year ban on the business on December 1. The new Lenovo C Series notebooks and J Series desktops are based on Intel and AMD processors, feature ThinkPad-inspired technologies and offer Lenovo Care productivity tools to take the guesswork out of system maintenance. With a sleek silver case, the C100 notebook weighs 2.8kg and is 3.3cm thin. February 27, 2006
Banco Delta Asia - taken over by the Macau government after a money- laundering scandal last year - is seeking a buyer, becoming the latest lender to put itself on the block as a wave of consolidation sweeps the regional banking industry, people familiar with the situation said. China Telecommunications Group, the parent of Hong Kong-listed China Telecom Corp, plans to spin off its engineering and telecom services arm for a Hong Kong initial public offering to raise between US$200 million (HK$1.56 billion) and US$400 million in the second half this year, industry sources said. Golden Eagle, a mainland department store chain which hopes to raise HK$1.2 billion to HK1.3 billion in its Hong Kong IPO, said it plans to open three stores in the cities of Xian, Nanjing and Taizhou at a total cost of HK$320 million. As the tension between the government and the territory's two power companies over the development of the electricity market intensifies, Hong Kong Electric has taken a calculated risk in building the city's first wind-power station in the hopes of gaining favorable business conditions later. The value Hong Kong's exports surged 34.8 per cent year-on-year in January to $13.1 billion, official statistics released on Monday showed. Hong Kong-based Phoenix Satellite Television Monday rejected a report that media-entertainment giant News Corp has discussed pulling out of its Chinese television joint venture.
China Merchants Bank (CMB) aims to
launch a US$2 billion H-share offering this year, becoming the first mainland
lender to trade on both the domestic and Hong Kong stock exchanges, sources
said.
The mobile-phone market will remain stable this year with about 300,000 handsets sold every month, 15 per cent of them for 3G services, says Motorola Asia-Pacific vice-president Cedric So.
Luxembourg-based steel giant Arcelor SA has reached an agreement in principle to buy an undisclosed stake in Laiwu Steel Corporation, China's second biggest fully integrated steel plant, officials of Laigang Group, Laiwu Steel's parent company, said on Friday. Bank of America, the second-largest US bank, and Cargill, the largest US agricultural company, have emerged winners in the latest bad debt auction organized by Huarong Asset Management. China Rare Earth Holdings, the nation's biggest processor of elements used in magnets and mobile phone batteries, may bring in General Electric, one of the world's largest conglomerates, as a strategic investor, a senior official at the firm said.
Although it has been endorsed by the central leadership, the concept of a "green GDP" has been controversial from the beginning and is sure to be debated at the annual National People's Congress session that convenes on Sunday.
February 24 - 26, 2006
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing has launched a crackdown on leakage of pre-deal research as listing candidate Golden Eagle International came under fire for leaks from its prospectus.
Hong Kong blue chips rose to a five- year high Thursday amid the heaviest trading since the SAR government intervened in the stock market in 1998, as investors switched their holdings to property stocks from H shares. Pacific Century Insurance Holdings, a Hong Kong-based insurer controlled by tycoon Richard Li, said its chief financial officer Sam Cheung has resigned after the company found an accounting error that inflated profit by 13 times. Esprit Holdings was downgraded at Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse after the company reported earnings dented by a poor choice of merchandise at its women's clothing division. The stock slid 9 percent. Mandarin Oriental International, which manages luxury hotels in Asia, Europe and the Americas, said profit almost tripled last year as it booked a one-time gain from selling a hotel stake and charged more for rooms. Chief Executive Donald Tsang told top Beijing advisers Thursday that he will stay a few days in Beijing to meet the greater Pearl River Delta region's nine provincial governors and their mayors to enhance cross-border cooperation. The government announced on Thursday that it would launch a scheme aimed at attracting talented people from the mainland and overseas to settle in Hong Kong.
European steel giant Arcelor has won initial approval to buy a 38.41 per cent stake in China's Laiwu Steel for 2.09 billion yuan (HK$2.01 billion), a source close to the deal said on Friday.
China will allow foreign investors to own equity stakes of up to 25 per cent in rural financial institutions, seeking their expertise and capital. Human trials for a new drug to fight HIV and hepatitis B have begun in the mainland, raising hope for a cheaper alternative treatment for Aids sufferers, state media reported on Thursday. February 23, 2006
Hong Kong Financial Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen , going some way to meet public demand, announced on Wednesday modest tax breaks but balanced them with the start of consultations on a goods and services tax (GST). Hong Kong's economy grew by 7.3 per cent last year, showing it has fully recovered from the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis, the financial chief said on Wednesday.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) on Wednesday said it was concerned about a fake bank website that has been put on the internet.
While the Chinese economy faces a favorable domestic environment for stable growth this year, challenges such as imbalances in international payments are still ahead, said the People's Bank of China. Foreign exchange officials have sounded out the market about further easing of capital outflow restrictions this year as political pressure mounts for further yuan appreciation and exchange-rate flexibility. Search engine Baidu.com reported stronger-than-expected quarterly profits on Wednesday despite growing competition from industry giants Google and Yahoo in its home market, sending its United States shares up in after-hours trading. February 22, 2006
Shares of Hang Lung Properties, Hong Kong's fourth-largest developer by market value, closed almost 4 percent down after the company reported its interim profit little changed as revaluation gains and rental income growth offset a steep decline in home sales. SuperSun, a small pay-TV operator part-owned by dominant free-to-air broadcaster TVB, has signed a five-year agreement to distribute its programs via PCCW's NOW Broadband TV, which has half a million customers. After months of anticipation, the Hospital Authority's new chief executive has arrived in Hong Kong, armed with a plan to look at "every option" to reduce the medical deficit and leaving little doubt that there will be changes. Hong Kong inflation rose sharply in January to 2.6 per cent, from a 1.8 per cent increase in December last year, official figures showed on Tuesday.
The People's Bank of China, or the central bank, said on Tuesday the country's currency will be kept "basically stable" at a reasonable and balanced level in 2006. The world's biggest aircraft, the 555-seat Airbus A380, will arrive in China during Zhuhai Airshow in November this year.
With booming business between China and India, State Bank of India (SBI), the largest commercial bank in India, plans to upgrade its Shanghai representative office into a branch company this April, making it the first Indian bank to open its branch in China. The European Union on Monday said it may impose protective duties on imports of shoes from China and Vietnam after finding evidence that the Asian nations were unfairly dumping footwear on European markets. Guangdong's land watchdog has sought provincial government approval to implement a raft of land requisition rules introducing uniform compensation standards. China and the European Union signed an agreement yesterday on developing technology to reduce emissions from burning coal, as a top EU official called on the mainland to play a greater role in fighting climate change.
The Ministry of Commerce yesterday
said foreign direct investment on the mainland increased 11 per cent year on
year to US$4.55 billion last month, as efforts by overseas firms to tap the
country's cheap labour and booming consumer market showed no sign of flagging. February 21, 2006
Hong Kong's Peter Kam won the Silver Bear for Best Music for "Isabella" at the 56th Berlin Film Festival which ended on Saturday (Sunday HK time).
A British-based renewable energy company is planning to build Hong Kong's first commercial wind farm off Sai Kung. Under the plan, up to 50 massive wind turbines - described as being "as tall as Jardine House with blades as long as a Boeing jet" - will be built on the Ninepin islands, or Kwo Chau Kwan To.
China Aviation Industry Corporation I (AVIC I) and China Aviation Industry Corporation II (AVIC II) will undertake the design and manufacture of Airbus' newest aircraft, the A350, after joining the Airbus engineering center.
Chinese e-commerce sales last year hit a record 553.1 billion yuan (US$68.72 billion), an increase of 58 per cent over 2004; and the momentum is set to continue this year, says a new study. Ningbo Port Group, a state-owned enterprise and the mainland's fourth- largest port operator, plans to spend 10 billion yuan (HK$ 9.65 billion) on building a port in Zhoushan to meet growing demand for container space from the Yangtze River Delta region.
China's new role as a stakeholder in the global system will receive its most important test in April when President Hu Jintao makes his long-delayed state visit to Washington. A United States congressman has introduced draft legislation that would make it illegal for mainland internet firms listed in the US to comply with Chinese government demands on censorship and disclosure of personal information. February 20, 2006
Billionaire Li Ka-shing has spent HK$517 million to increase his stake in property developer Cheung Kong (Holdings) amid expectations the company will continue to benefit from Hong Kong's rising economy and peaking interest rates. Hong Kong's Airport Authority has obtained approval from the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China to set up a joint venture to operate the under-utilized Zhuhai Airport.
Oil and natural gas mining are the most profitable industries in China in 2005, according to a study by the State Information Center released Friday. International crude oil price rise will exert seven impacts on Chinese economy including GDP slash, rising pressure of inflation and other aspects, according to a report released by Forecasting Research Center of Chinese Academy of Sciences on February 16. Multinational companies are taking on more corporate social responsibility in China, according to a report released on Friday by the Transnational Corporation Research Centre under the Ministry of Commerce. Chinese consumers will purchase 30 million computer units each year by 2008, a leading domestic market consultancy said yesterday. However competition will get more heated, leading to falling prices and profit margins. February 16 - 19, 2006
Property stocks rallied a day after banking giant HSBC's move to lower mortgage rates, with investors expecting residential sales to pick up amid a home- loan price war. Regal Hotels International Holdings, a mid-sized Hong Kong-listed hotel owner, plans to raise at least HK$4 billion by selling units in a real estate investment trust in Hong Kong as early as the first half, people familiar with the situation said. Tycoon Charles Chan has no plans to sell his stake in pay-television firm SuperSun at the moment, as the company hopes a new tie-up with PCCW will turn its business around, informed sources said. Financial Secretary Henry Tang should raise personal and dependent parent tax allowances as well as extend the home loan interest relief period in next week's budget, according to a survey by real estate agent Midland Realty. Casino tycoon Stanley Ho has elbowed his way through the crowds of merely wealthy to join the top five richest people in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau, three notches behind Asia's richest man, Li Ka-shing, according to a list compiled by Forbes Asia magazine.
China will begin a comprehensive audit of the Three Gorges Project, the world's largest hydropower project, in March of this year, according to audit sources. In 2005, China imported iron ore of 275 million tons, up 32.3 percent year on year and accounting for 43 percent of the world's total ore shipment.
American companies in China are prospering as they gain more access to domestic markets despite the ongoing trade frictions between the two countries, according to an American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) survey released yesterday. China's top oil refiner, Sinopec Corp yesterday said it had got final government approval to upgrade its ethylene production facility in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province. This could involve an investment of up to 8.4 billion yuan (US$1.03 billion).
February 15, 2006
Automated Systems Holdings Ltd, the Hong Kong-listed arm of Singapore information technology (IT) firm CSA, plans to set up its first office on the Chinese mainland. Some mainland property developers are expected to buck the trend and deliver big profits for investors this year, despite the cooling-down of the sector, local analysts said. The International Monetary Fund has urged the Hong Kong government to tackle long-term fiscal problems presented by the city's aging population and avoid granting tax cuts in next week's budget despite forecasts for financial surpluses in the near term. With the inclusion of some eligible H-share giants such as China Construction Bank, the benchmark Hang Seng Index will become more representative of the Hong Kong stock market. But more important, the change reflects the fact that the SAR is now the major market for mainland companies to raise capital despite Shanghai's challenge. The government and the Hong Kong Amateur Athletic Association will hold an emergency meeting today to review future arrangements for the Hong Kong Marathon, which has suffered its first fatality after a crowded race run in bad air pollution Sunday.
The country will continue to be challenged by the great transfer of the rural labor force in 2006 and have to deal with employment risks posed by overcapacity, trade conflicts, or economic fluctuations.
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the country's largest commercial lender, expects its operating profits to rise by more than 10 percent this year as it diversifies revenue sources and continues to cut bad loans. Shares of Dongfeng Motor Group, China's No3 automaker, and Agile Property Holdings, a Guangdong-based property developer, have been added in Morgan Stanley Capital International indexes, a move that will likely attract fund flow to the stocks. February 14, 2006
China's biggest baby-goods supplier Goodbaby Group has been bought out by a Hong Kong private equity fund in one of the mainland's first leveraged buyouts (LBO), a company executive confirmed.
Nine Dragons Paper (Holdings), the biggest containerboard maker in China, plans to sell US$60 million (HK$468 million) worth of shares to tycoons Lee Shau-kee, Cheng Yu-tung and Robert Kuok in its Hong Kong initial public offering, according to a preliminary prospectus obtained by institutional investors. The benchmark Hang Seng Index is set to reflect more the influence of mainland stocks, particularly in the financial and energy sectors, as China continues with reform to make state-owned shares tradable, a move that will also make the shares eligible for inclusion in the index under new rules. Hong Kong Science and Technology Park Corp, which manages the HK$12 billion Science Park in Sha Tin, said it may have to repay the government more than HK$5 billion as rental income increases. China Glass Holdings, which listed its shares on Hong Kong's main board last June, is sealing a deal to buy eight factories, a move that will expand production capacity fivefold and make the company the country's largest glassmaker, industry sources said. The Hong Kong Amateur Athletic Association is considering changes to the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon after nearly 5,000 people needed medical treatment during Sunday's race.
Financial Secretary Henry Tang is likely to widen the current tax bands and extend the eligible period of home loan interest deductions to benefit the middle class when he announces his budget on February 22, a source close to the government said. TVB has won its battle to show the full Oscar awards ceremony live after the broadcasting regulator allowed it to delay the start of educational television by an hour.
The Planning Department plans to rezone a former government office site in Causeway Bay, paving the way for a $6.1 billion sale for commercial or low-density housing.
In January 2006, China's foreign trade volume totaled US$120.49 billion, up 26.8 percent year on year. China's currency strengthened to its highest level against the US dollar yesterday since its July 21 revaluation.
Alliant Energy Corporation, a US-based power firm, announced late last week that it has sold its interests in eight power facilities in China for a combined US$123 million, and is planning to sell its remaining two plants, with local companies rumoured to be in the running. US-based 3M, a Fortune 500 multinational company, yesterday announced the establishment of a US$30 million material technology company in Guangzhou Development District.
The mainland yesterday said retail sales in the first half are likely to grow about 12.5 per cent from a year earlier, indicating a sturdy trend as the government tries to promote consumption to help rebalance the economy. The central government is planning to force large state-owned enterprises to pay dividends to the state after companies overseen by State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (Sasac) posted more than 600 billion yuan in net profit last year. February 13, 2006
Neo-China Group (Holdings), a Hong Kong-listed mainland property firm, raised HK$619 million in a share placement to fund property developments in China, market sources said. Agriculture officers may break into private homes to seize chickens after a prohibition on domestic poultry farming comes into effect Monday, warned Stella Hung, director of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department.
It will be business as usual for law enforcement authorities carrying out covert surveillance until the six-month grace period provided by the High Court expires, a senior government source said yesterday.
Xinao Gas Holdings, China's largest privately owned piped-gas distributor, said growth over the year will come from expanding its existing distribution systems, rather than buying new ones, a decision that will allow it to hold its capital spending at last year's 800 million yuan (HK$770.4 million) level for the next two to three years. In 2005 China exported 172,639 autos, 11,031 more than the import, according to latest figures from the Ministry of Commerce. When authentic figures on the Chinese and world oil markets in 2005 finally became available, the truth about the so-called "Chinese factor" in the soaring international oil price was also disclosed -- it has been seriously overplayed. China Development Bank and China Everbright Bank completed the country's first RMB interest rate swap transaction Thursday.
The Ministry of Health hopes an experiment with low-cost hospitals will serve as a model in the government's efforts to restructure the health-care system and curb malpractices that result in exorbitant medical bills. The organizers of the Beijing Olympics have launched a charm offensive to convince the international media that they have nothing to fear from China. The threat of legal action from disgruntled offshore investors is delaying mainland companies with dual listings at home and abroad from carrying out their state share reforms, analysts say. February 10 - 12, 2006
The planned spinoff of Hutchison Whampoa's 3 Italia unit will depend on efforts to bridge a gap of as much as 2 billion euros (HK$18.62 billion) between what the parent company and fund managers think the Italian third- generation mobile phone company is worth. China Resources Snow Breweries, a joint venture between Hong Kong- listed China Resources Enterprise and the world's third-largest brewer SABMiller, has bought 85 percent of a Fujian-based brewer for 72 million yuan (HK$69.3 million). COSCO Container Lines (COSCON) - a unit of Hong Kong-listed COSCO China Holdings - and 14 other Asian shippers plan to raise freight rates by an average 10 to 20 percent on US- Asian routes, brushing aside concerns of overcapacity in the global shipping industry. Most of Hong Kong's leading lenders, like HSBC's Hang Seng Bank and Bank of East Asia, will eke out small earnings growth for 2005 after a second-half rebound in net interest margins, analysts say. Mid-tier developer Chinese Estates plans to bundle assets in a real estate investment trust that may comprise five prime Hong Kong commercial properties worth HK$10 billion, sources told Sing Tao Daily.
Pacific Century Premium Developments has unveiled the final phase of its Bel-Air Residence at Cyberport, with a developable floor area of one million square feet, which analysts estimate will involve construction costs of HK$2 billion. Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEx), China Netcom and Foxconn International Holdings are all likely candidates to be added to the benchmark Hang Seng Index, replacing Denway Motors, Johnson Electric or Lenovo tomorrow when the index comes up for quarterly review, market analysts reckoned. Tsui Hark's martial arts epic Seven Swords faces a battle with Peter Chan Ho-sun's musical Perhaps Love at this year's Hong Kong Film Awards after both movies garnered 11 nominations each. Prolonged questioning in the contentious internal surveillance case roiling Hong Kong's anti-graft agency focused Wednesday on whether top directors acted before receiving legal advice about initiating a criminal investigation against one of its senior investigators. The WHO's top pandemic flu official has applauded Hong Kong's ban on backyard poultry farming, saying the city was seen as setting the global "gold standard" for bird-flu precautions.
Small airline Hong Kong Express will scrap its Guangzhou leg - one of the shortest hops in the aviation business - at the end of the month due to low passenger numbers and heavy competition.
Export-Import Bank of China will borrow US$260 million from nine banks to support expanding trade financing and overseas investment by Chinese companies, according to Bank of China, which is arranging the loan.
Sinopec Corp, the country's biggest oil refiner, plans to spend about US$1.46 billion to buy out four domestic-listed subsidiaries, said people close to the deal yesterday, fuelling expectations of further privatization. Eight Chinese shoe makers set up an alliance on Wednesday in south China's Guangdong Province to summon the country's shoe manufacturing industry to act in unity in responding to European Union's (EU) anti-dumping probe on China-made shoes. China on Wednesday imposed a temporary ban on pork imports from Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands over a dioxin scare in the European countries. Chinese mainland has decided to resume the export of fishery labor services to Taiwan in the upcoming fishing season after four-year-long suspension, announced by an official with the Ministry of Commerce. Authorities in Shanghai released figures yesterday confirming the slowdown in the city's property sector last year, which some see as signal that it is time to jump back into the market.
February 9, 2006
Think twice before you take home a live chicken from the market because you could face a fine of up to HK$100,000, health officials warned while introducing a proposal to ban backyard poultry farming. The local exhibition industry put HK$19 billion into the economy last year, driven by increased mainland business visitors, exceeding the percentage of contributions to the gross domestic product when compared with Germany and England, the industry's chairman said Tuesday. Most of the abuse of elderly people in Hong Kong involved physical or psychological mistreatment, Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food York Chow Yat-ngok said on Wednesday.
Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa on Wednesday said it had cleared all regulatory hurdles for the initial public offering of its Italian third-generation mobile phone unit 3 Italia but that final approval rested with 3 Italia's board of directors. Television Broadcasts' pay-television operation, Supersun, is banking on yet another name change to turn the struggling business around, and on a partnership with rival PCCW Now Broadband TV to lift its battered fortunes. The Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group yesterday finalised its first project in China, sealing a contract to manage a 292-room resort in Sanya, Hainan. The management of Link Reit is looking to refinance its $12 billion loan facility provided by HSBC during the initial public offering last year with a five-year debt facility, sources said.
As learned from the website of the Ministry of Commerce, China customs statistics show the bilateral trade between China and Vietnam recorded a 21.6 percent increase to 8.2 billion US dollars in 2005. China Aviation Oil (Singapore) Corp. had its yearly financial report of 2004 approved at the shareholders' meeting early this month, paving the way for its relist.
Insurance Australia Group (IAG), the largest car and home insurer in Australia, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to buy 24.9 per cent of China Pacific Property Insurance Company (CPIC Property). Chinese Internet portal Sohu.com yesterday said revenue for the fourth quarter rose by 27 per cent year-on-year and 8 per cent quarter-on-quarter to US$30.50 million.
Six senior mainland officials from the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) have been taken into custody after being accused of taking bribes, the China Daily reported on Wednesday.
February 8, 2006
Yorkey Optical International and Modern Beauty Salon Holdings, the first two Hong Kong initial public offerings in the Year of the Dog, priced their shares towards the top end of indicative price ranges amid a buoyant market for new stock. CK Life Sciences International, tycoon Li Ka-shing's biotechnology flagship, has agreed to pay US$166 million (HK$1.29 billion) for 80 percent of an American nutraceutical company, its largest acquisition since listing on the stock exchange in 2002. Hong Kong Disneyland's gestures to calm the anger sparked by the Lunar New Year's chaos, when hundreds of people were turned away at the gates, has failed to appease tourists. The Chinese University of Hong Kong will soon be looking for philanthropists who are willing to cough up up to HK$500 million and may in exchange have new colleges named after them. The KCRC has been asked to proceed with in-depth planning for an express rail link between Hong Kong and Guangzhou using its West Rail line rather than a dedicated new line.
China's banking supervisor said it uncovered 767.1 billion yuan (HK$738 billion) of irregularities at domestic financial institutions last year - about a third more than in 2004. Nine Dragons Paper, the largest containerboard maker in China, plans to use the US$400 million (HK$3.12 billion) proceeds from its Hong Kong share sale for debt repayment and to increase production capacity by 64 percent over the next three years, according to a research report by the co-arranger of the IPO. February 7, 2006
Home World Group, a mainland retail chain store operator, plans to raise almost HK$4 billion in an initial public share offering in the second quarter to benefit from the country's growing middle class, people familiar with the situation said.
China Life Insurance, the mainland's largest insurer with half of the life coverage market, plans to sell a 10 percent stake in the company to three strategic investors - two from overseas, and one from the mainland - chairman Yang Chao said, according to Caijing Magazine. Jockey Club officials were all smiles Sunday when, for the second time in six days, racing turnover topped the HK$1 billion mark. Hong Kong's customs officials said on Monday they had stepped up surveillance at the border with China to stop people smuggling birds and poultry into the territory.
The Securities and Futures Commission will today ask lawmakers to approve new rules governing customer margin financing provided by brokers, including a limit on how much of client stock held as collateral can be repledged by brokers to obtain bank loans. Hutchison Whampoa's Italian mobile unit, 3 Italia, has gained listing approval but is still awaiting final clearance from the securities market regulator before it begins its long-awaited €2 billion ($18.6 billion) initial public offering. Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing is looking to introduce additional guidelines to vet listing applications from gaming companies because of concerns about money laundering, according to sources.
The government will continue to regulate land supply for real estate development this year but promised to transfer more to construct economical housing for low-income families, said a cabinet official.
China's currency closed on Monday at a post-revaluation high against the US dollar, as local banks sold some of their excess dollar positions after the lunar New Year holiday, traders said.
February 6, 2006
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEx), which operates the city's stock and futures exchanges, said it will add more independent members to the listing committee as it launched a two- phase reform program Friday.
In a high-stakes power play, Chief Secretary for Administration Rafael Hui has promised to attend a Legislative Council hearing on the proposed West Kowloon cultural district only after legislators failed in their attempt to compel him to appear before them. Commercial development appears to have been ruled out in an expanse of woodland and wetland near Sai Kung Country Park where a property giant wants to build a golf course.
Warburg Pincus, a leading global private equity investment fund, will invest in GOME through the issuance of 125 million U.S. dollars convertible bonds and 25 million U.S. dollars warrants. China approved requests by 31 foreign institutional investors to pour US$5.64 billion (HK$43.99 billion) into yuan- denominated stocks and bonds by the end of 2005 as demand for access to the domestic market heats up.
China Aviation Oil (CAO) yesterday said it would appoint two new board members from its new investor, BP Investment Asia, to improve corporate governance at the scandal-tainted jet fuel company. February 3 - 5, 2006
Hong Kong's home sales rose by 10.7 percent in January month-on-month, the first increase in the number of transactions in three months, as buyers return to the market on expectations that interest rates are peaking.
Hong Kong Secretary for Financial Services & the Treasury Frederick Ma has expressed the hope that the Revenue (Profits Tax Exemption for Offshore Funds) Bill, which helps attract more overseas investors to Hong Kong, will be endorsed in this year's first quarter. Television Broadcasts, Hong Kong's dominant free-to-air broadcaster, said it applied for land from the government to build base stations for its planned launch of HDTV (high-definition television) service in the city by the end of next year. The Securities and Futures Commission has begun an investigation into whether some analysts improperly used price- sensitive information selectively disclosed by Techtronic Industries in their research reports, sources close to the regulatory body said.
Hong Kong's retail sales rose 6.9 per cent to $19.3 billion year-on-year in December 2005, latest statistics released on Thursday showed.
Most local lenders yesterday left interest rates unchanged in the wake of the latest increase in US rates - with the notable exception Bank of China (Hong Kong), which decided to raise its prime rate by 0.25 percentage point to 8 per cent to catch up with its medium and smaller rivals.
Nortel Networks on Wednesday said it was joining hands with a major Chinese competitor, Huawei Technologies, in a global partnership to develop "ultra broadband" projects. French telecommunications equipment manufacturer Alcatel on Thursday reported a 61 per cent increase in net profit for last year and forecast that it would outperform the market this year. February 2, 2006
With Hong Kong's money market awash in liquidity, all major banks except Bank of China (Hong Kong) left their interest rates unchanged despite the quarter-percentage-point hike in US rates Tuesday. Hutchison Whampoa, the world's largest port operator, has won approval from the British government to build a new container terminal at Felixstowe, the biggest port in the United Kingdom. Six government officers would arrive in Egypt on Wednesday evening (HK time) - a day after a bus crash that killed 14 Hong Kong people, Secretary for Security Ambrose Lee Siu-kwong said. A record 853 flights had come in or out of Chek Lap Kok airport last Friday as the Lunar New Year holidays began, a Civil Aviation Department spokesman said on Wednesday.
Two former branch managers at Bank of China, the mainland's second- biggest lender, have been charged by a Las Vegas federal grand jury with defrauding the bank of more than US$485 million (HK$3.78 billion), 10 months after another former official of the bank was sentenced on related charges in the United States and returned to China. February 1, 2006
Venetian Macau's US$2.5 billion (HK$19.5 billion) syndicated loan has proved a hard sell to some banks in the region, and its arrangers are turning to lenders elsewhere, mainly in the United States, to line up funds, sources familiar with the deal said.
Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd's (HTIL) Indonesian mobile unit will soon lose its place as one of only two operators licensed to run both 2G and 3G services, with the Indonesian government likely to award 3G spectrum to another two local operators. Office rents in Hong Kong's tallest skyscraper, Two International Financial Centre (Two IFC), have been raised to more than $100 per square foot - a fivefold increase on the $20 per sq ft at which the development first came to the market when it opened for business in the first half of 2003.
New breakthroughs in oil and gas exploration were made in the past five years as the traditional oil fields in East China maintained a steady growth. Petroleum and natural gas began to play bigger roles in China's energy consumption structure.
January 31, 2006
Britain's top appeals court has given some employees of Cathay Pacific Airways recourse to British labour laws in a decision that has wider implications for how British-controlled firms in Hong Kong handle staff dismissals.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited the No.65 well of Zhongyuan Oil-field in Dongming County of Shandong Province on the eve of the lunar New Year and celebrated the festival with oil workers. The total investment in China's booming real estate sector has rocketed to an estimated 5.3 trillion yuan (657.6 billion US dollars) over the last five years. January 30, 2006
The Hong Kong government ran a deficit of HK$6 billion in the nine months ending December 31, putting it on track to achieve a surplus for the full fiscal year, analysts said. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the city's de facto central bank, may tighten rules on its senior officials who join private companies after leaving the authority to avoid conflict of interest.
Nine Dragons Paper Industries, a paper manufacturer based in Dongguan, has won approval from the Hong Kong stock exchange to raise HK$3 billion in an initial public offering, market sources said. The contentious West Kowloon cultural district project has been saved from collapse at the 11th hour, with two shortlisted bidders expressing continued interest in developing the cultural hub hours before the deadline.
British-based Man Group held its annual board meeting in its new Hong Kong offices this week in a sign of how important the Asian market has become for the world's largest hedge fund company.
About 6.5 million people, nearly equivalent to the total population of Hong Kong, are expected to enter or leave the SAR over the next few days, the Immigration Department said.
Xinhua PR Newswire, a news and information distributor, is aiming to "significantly expand" its business in China, hoping to cash in on opportunities in the fast-growing economy. US investment bank Goldman Sachs, German insurer Allianz and credit card and travel services giant American Express formally signed a deal Friday to buy a combined stake of almost 10 percent in Industrial and Commercial Bank of China for US$3.78 billion (HK$29.48 billion), the mainland's largest lender said.
January 27 - 29, 2006
Datang International Power Generation Co Ltd, China's second-largest Hong Kong-listed generator, is diversifying by taking a stake in a new nuclear project in East China's Fujian Province. Lenovo Group, Asia's largest personal computer manufacturer, has blamed a lack of competitive products in the business it acquired from IBM last year for worse-than-expected results in the three months to December, when profit margins and market share outside the mainland fell sharply.
Hong Kong's High Court on Thursday ordered four internet service providers (ISPs) in the territory to supply users' personal data to help with the prosecution of people distributing copyrighted files illegally
The value of Hong Kong's exports increased by 6.7 per cent to $188.8 billion in the year ending December 2005, latest statistics released on Thursday showed. Newly-appointed Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology, Joseph Wong Wing-ping, flew to Switzerland on Thursday to attend an informal World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial meeting in Davos.
The Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation on Thursday said it had agreed to a £3.5 billion (HK$49 billion) offer from Singapore port operator PSA International - a switch of alliances that is likely to spark a bidding war for the 165-year-old British maritime icon. Macau is planning to double the passenger capacity of its airport to handle the anticipated influx of international travellers as the city's investment boom boosts its reputation as a leisure destination, according to an official.
China could face the risk of either deflation or inflation this year, the nation's top statistician warned yesterday, saying domestic oversupply and global oil price rises would exert conflicting pressures on the economy.
The sizzling Zheng Jie and Yan Zi kept on creating tennis history yesterday as they outclassed Shinobu Asagoe of Japan and Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia to reach the finals of the women's doubles at the Australian Open.
A majority of chief executive officers plan to invest in China in the next three years to win customers in the world's fastest-growing major economy, a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP showed. Four Seasons Hotels Inc, the world's largest operator of luxury hotels, said it will open three new hotels in China, which the United Nations predicts will be the globe's most visited country by 2020. InterContinental Hotels Group Plc, whose Holiday Inn chain benefited from the construction of the US Interstate Highway system in the 1950s, is counting on Chinese roads to fuel demand for overnight stays.
Japan's trade surplus saw its first fall in four years last year, driven down by high energy prices, and in another first, slipped below that of China - now the world's workshop - official figures showed on Thursday. Lenovo Group, China's largest personal computer maker by shipments, on Thursday said net profit for the October-December quarter rose 12 per cent from a year earlier, led by growth in local and overseas markets. January 26, 2006
Sing Wang, chief executive of Tom Group, a media company controlled by tycoon Li Ka-shing, abruptly resigned and was replaced by chief financial officer Tommei Tong, following media reports questioning the amount of time he was spending on personal investments while remaining at the helm of the publicly traded company. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority expects profitability indicators for Hong Kong's banks to continue to improve as robust economic growth overshadows the effects of increasing competition and mounting cost pressures. Members of the government's newly- appointed public broadcasting review committee have hit back over allegations they had been "bought out" by the administration as part of an ongoing plan to turn Radio and Television Hong Kong into a government mouthpiece. Permanent Secretary for Education and Manpower Fanny Law has acknowledged for the first time calls for her resignation by saying she sees no reason why she should step down.
The government on Wednesday
announced the appointment of four senior secretaries. An accounting error at Pacific Century Insurance Holdings has resulted in the overstatement of profits by up to 13 times, forcing it to revise its figures and bringing it under the spotlight of regulators.
US President Bush spoke highly about his personal relationship with President Hu Jintao on Monday, saying that he "enjoys" visits with the Chinese leader. Beijing wants better communications with Washington, Premier Wen Jiabao said yesterday as he met a senior US official amid recent tensions over trade, the mainland's military build-up and its human rights record. The Chinese government has decided to regulate the country's real estate mortgage evaluation sector to reduce loan risks of the banking sector. The annual anti-tax avoidance investigation by State Administration of Taxation (SAT) over an average of 230 enterprises shows that the accumulative adjustment of taxable amount reached some 20 billion yuan.
Credit Suisse, a global financial services provider, has made its first ever direct investment in China's real estate sector, marking an important step for the 150-year-old bank's expansion plan on the Chinese mainland.
China's State Reserve Bureau has banned its employees from trading in a broad range of financial instruments after one of them ran up huge losses on copper futures last year. January 25, 2006
Health Secretary York Chow Yat-ngok said on Tuesday businesses would be given a grace period of at least three years to prepare for the government’s proposed smoking ban. Mainland retail and consumption stocks will continue to be investment favourites among local investors this year, thanks to the mainland's shift from an investment-driven economy to a consumption-driven one, analysts said. One of Hong Kong oldest travel agencies, boasting 30 years' experience in the industry, informed the Tourism Industry Association Monday that it has closed all six of its branches due to financial problems.
Hong Kong is among a handful of cities shortlisted to host the Asian Aerospace civilian and military air show from 2008, an event that could contribute as much as $2 billion to the local economy every two years.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met with US Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick Tuesday in Beijing.
China on Tuesday called for talks to make the current holiday-only charter flights to Taiwan year-round in an effort to skirt the self-governing island's 57-year-old ban on direct transport links United States-based Travelocity has fully acquired regional online travel booking firm ZUJI for US$34 million (HK$265 million) to boost its Asia-Pacific business. Profit of China's 169 central state-owned enterprises (SOEs) grew 27.9 percent year on year to 628 billion yuan (78 billion US dollars in 2005, a senior official said Monday in Beijing. The trade volume between Chinese mainland and Taiwan reached 91.23 billion US dollars last year as more and more Taiwan businesses, hi-tech ones in particular, come to invest in the most populous market, said a mainland official on Taiwan affairs here Monday.
European aviation giant Airbus is likely to establish a final assembly line for single-aisle aircraft in China this year, Airbus said yesterday. China's flagship grid company, the State Grid Corp of China (SGCC), said it will spend 800 billion yuan (US$98.6 billion) over the next five years to upgrade the country's electricity transmission network. Guangdong Kelon Electrical Holdings Co, China's biggest refrigerator maker, said an investigation found that former executives had inflated sales and embezzled at least 592 million yuan (US$73 million). The company's shares fell after the news. January 24, 2006
Shangri-La Asia, a luxury hotel operator controlled by Malaysian tycoon Robert Kuok, is spending 92 million euros (HK$865.63 million) buying Paris mansion and converting it to a hotel. Hong Kong, faced with a rapidly aging population, will gradually open its tightly guarded borders to professionals from the mainland and elsewhere, the Immigration Department said. The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department on Monday urged the public not to bring orchids into Hong Kong without a licence — especially during the forthcoming Chinese New Year holiday.
The latest MasterIndex of Consumer Confidence survey shows Chinese consumers confidence reached 82.3, hitting historical highs in terms of the Quality of Life, Economy and Regular Income. That indicates Chinese consumers continue to have an optimistic economic outlook, despite of many existing and soon-to-emerge economic challenges. Managerial staffs of China's major state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are permitted to hold shares of their own firms during assets or shares increase of the SOEs. China saw a record high of 14 trillion yuan (1.73 trillion US dollars) in domestic saving deposits last year with the cooling down of personal investment and downturn of domestic consumption. In the past months, a number of industry players including Ericsson and Nokia have jumped on the TD-SCDMA bandwagon. The TD-SCDMA Industrial Alliance now has more than 420 members.
Australian wool growers have enlisted movie star Yin Xiaotian to prove to China's businessmen that wearing a 1,200 yuan (US$149) Australian wool suit is the key to success.
Beijing's real estate sector now constitutes 7.2 per cent of its gross domestic product, representing an annual growth rate of nearly 20 per cent during the past five years. January 20 - 23, 2006
China Merchants Bank, which is seeking to become the first mainland bank to be listed both at home and overseas, plans to raise more than HK$10 billion through an initial public offering in Hong Kong, possibly before June, market sources said.
With the United States and European Union holding fast to tariffs on mainland textiles and clothing until the end of 2008, Hong Kong has a "golden opportunity" to redevelop its local industry and boost employment, the government's top labor chief told lawmakers.
Senior Hospital Authority managers will be the first target of restructuring by incoming chief Shane Solomon, the health bureaucrat recruited from Australia to reform Hong Kong's health system. Shane Solomon is more worried about not being able to speak Cantonese than about his lack of medical training. Mr Solomon, 49, who began his career as a social worker, believes management experience and understanding the health system are crucial to health-system management, but being a doctor is not.
The telecommunications regulator plans to withhold new licences for broadband wireless technologies such as WiMAX until it becomes clearer how the merging of fixed and mobile services will affect the regulatory regime. Travel and financial services provider American Express said on Tuesday it is considering applying for a banking licence on the Chinese mainland to enhance the company's diversified presence in the market. Yantai North Andre Juice Co Ltd, an apple juice supplier to beverage giants such as Coca Cola, Pepsi and Nestle, plans to more than double its output in the next two years.
The embattled KCRC disclosed two new incidents yesterday as the transport minister vowed to remove any grey areas from the rail company's regulations. Combating piracy and air pollution is key to enhancing Hong Kong's attractiveness to foreign investors, the new chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce said. The government has no policy or mechanism to exchange land with the Housing Authority, which is facing a shortage of sites for public housing development, the housing chief said yesterday.
Two years after people began to hear about China's economic "soft landing," now it has finally come about. At least, the buzz word has materialized in the real estate industry, China's most important engine for domestic spending. The nation's biggest oil producer, PetroChina, yesterday said it has obtained the government's final approval to build two cross-China pipelines.
January 19, 2006
Dragonair, Hong Kong’s No. 2 carrier, said on Wednesday it flew a record number of 5 millions passengers in 2005.
Trade between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) rose to 130.4 billion U.S. dollars last year, up 23.1 percent on a year-on-year basis. China's taxation administration said Tuesday that the administration is still working on a proposal for a unified income tax system both for domestic and overseas-funded firms. The Italian sportswear company Lotto Sport Italia has formed a joint venture with Scienward International Holdings Ltd in a bid to enhance its presence in China.
The State Administration of Taxation released a breakdown of tax revenue yesterday that showed income from corporate tax grew 35 per cent last year, largely due to a 38.1 per cent rise in profits in 2004. January 18, 2006
Hong Kong-listed companies will have to pay more to their independent non- executive directors if they are to expand the pool of potential recruits at a time of higher workloads and increased responsibility, according to the Hong Kong Institute of Chartered Secretaries. Expatriate pay packages will not be illegal under proposed racial discrimination legislation, but setting remuneration according to race will be, the official overseeing the new law said Tuesday. More cracks have been discovered on Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation trains, but the legislative subcommittee overseeing rail transport is satisfied at the emergency safety measures adopted to secure the rolling stock. The government announced on Tuesday that it had set up a seven-member committee - formed by senior media professionals and an academic - to review Hong Kong's public broadcasting policy.
Shanghai Airlines, China's fifth-biggest carrier, is likely to join the world's largest airline club Star Alliance in the first half of this year, in a move to expand its international market, a source close to the alliance said.
China's personal savings rose to a record 14 trillion yuan (US$1.7 trillion) at the end of last year, mainly because people put aside more money to pay for education, health care and housing, analysts said yesterday.
China's biggest telecommunications equipment maker, Huawei Technologies, saw its global sales jump 40 per cent last year to US$8.2 billion (HK$64 billion) last year, the company reported. January 17, 2006
Complaining of "arbitrary" environmental standards and "shocking" cuts in its rate of return, CLP Power raised dire warnings Monday that the government's latest proposal to regulate Hong Kong's two electricity providers will hurt power generation and perhaps even lead to the collapse of the long-standing partnership between government and the industry. Lenovo Group, the largest computer maker in the Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, is seeking a US$300 million (HK$2.34 billion) loan to partially refinance loans taken out to fund last year's acquisition of International Business Machines' personal computer division, market sources said. UBS, the largest qualified foreign institutional investor in the mainland's yuan-denominated stock markets, is applying for an additional quota of up to US$500 million (HK$3.9 billion) to meet increasing demand from clients. The Hong Kong government will probably post a smaller budget surplus this fiscal year due to a shortfall in land sales and reduced investment income, despite higher tax revenues and cuts in public spending, according to forecasts by audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Annual passenger figures for Hong Kong International Airport soared to a record 40.74 million in 2005 — up 9.7 per cent from the previous year, latest statistics released on Monday showed.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will conduct a study to help China draw up a policy reform plan for the country's railway passenger and freight transport, through a technical assistance grant of 400,000 US dollars. China's increasingly marginalized B-share markets, where share prices are denominated in U.S. dollars and which are available to overseas investors, are set to be merged into the country's A-share market, experts said. Industry sources predicted that in 2006 China's foreign exchange policies will be more flexible, but the exchange rate will remain basically stable. China's foreign exchange reserved has reached US$819 Billions in 2005. China's official foreign exchange reserves look set to cross the US$1 trillion mark sometime this year after the People's Bank of China announced yesterday that the stockpile had swollen US$209 billion, or 34.3 per cent, to US$818.9 billion last year. January 16, 2006
Greentown China Holdings, a mainland propert developer, raised US$150 million (HK$1.17 billion) by selling bonds convertible into shares in the run-up to a potential initial public offering in Hong Kong, market sources said. Tianjin Port Development Holdings, a spinoff unit of red-chip conglomerate Tianjin Development, has been asked to submit further information for its US$100 million (HK$780 million) initial public offering, which may further delay the listing plan, an informed source said. Sun Hung Kai Properties has obtained a prime site in Shanghai which it will develop into office, retail and hotel space in a joint venture with the owner which will retain a minority share in the project, property agents said. Sunday Communications will pay its parent PCCW up to $117 million this year to market its 3G mobile sales but will get back only $68 million from wholesaling its network capacity and related services to PCCW.
Diplomats from Britain, Germany, France, Russia, China and US will meet in London Monday to discuss the escalating dispute over Iran's nuclear program.
Both output and sales of vehicles made in China topped 5.7 million units last year, mainly due to strong passenger vehicle demand, according to an industry organization.
China plans to allow its banks and postal services to set up insurance companies as it moves to diversify the structure of the expanding industry. China has told power companies that 5 percent of their electricity will have to come from renewable energy sources by 2010, as the country tries to diversify away from fossil fuels to power its fast- growing economy, according to a news report. January 13 - 15, 2006
Hutchison Whampoa plans to kick off the 2 billion euro (HK$18.69 billion) IPO of its Italian 3G mobile business as soon as next week, people familiar with the situation said Thursday. PCCW, the largest fixed-line operator in Hong Kong, will team up with global sports broadcaster ESPN STAR Sports in an effort to wrest one of i-Cable Communications' prize offerings - English Premier League football coverage - from the city's largest pay-TV network. The current contract expires this year. Chief Executive Donald Tsang has jumped to the defense of Permanent Secretary for Education and Manpower Fanny Law, asking legislators to give her the benefit of the doubt just days after her controversial remarks on the recent suicides of two teachers. The government will launch a retraining scheme for local garment workers and allow skilled staff to be brought in to help get the local textile and clothing industry back on its feet, Secretary for Economic Development and Labor Stephen Ip said. China Aviation Industry Corp II (AVIC II), parent of the Hong Kong-listed mini-car and helicopter maker AviChina Industry & Technology Co Ltd, said yesterday its 2005 sales income rose 10.8 per cent year-on-year.
The management of Link REIT, the world's largest property trust, is looking to arrange a commercial mortgage- backed security, or CMBS, to replace the HK$12.5 billion bridge loan arranged last year prior to the trust's initial public offering in Hong Kong, sources said. The number of tourists visiting Macau leapt 12 percent to a record in 2005, a pace local officials hope to maintain despite a sharp slowdown in the growth of mainland tourism. Investment property transactions may reach HK$70 billion in value this year - the highest since the 1997 market peak - boosted by overseas funds expanding their real estate investment trust portfolios, according to a report. Shares in Skyworth Digital Holdings, a mainland television maker, slumped as much as 62 percent Wednesday after ending a 13-month suspension, on concern over the TV market outlook and impending legal proceedings against two former executives who own 40 percent of the company.
CNOOC, the mainland's largest offshore oil producer, is likely to bid for a Kazakhstan oil company just days after it unveiled plans to spend US$2.3 billion (HK$17.94 billion) on offshore oil and gas assets in Nigeria, sources familiar with the situation said. Shanghai, China's premier financial city, surpassed Singapore as the world's biggest cargo port in terms of throughput last year as the mainland's export growth boosted demand for sea freight, the local port authority said. The census which showed the national economy is 17 per cent bigger than previously thought has also revealed the output of 12 provinces to be smaller than they have been reporting.
China's GDP will grow at an estimated rate of 8.5 to 9 percent in 2006. The NDRC study also predicts a slight deflation in the second half of the year. China is now Russia's fourth largest trade partner, and Russia is China's eighth largest trade partner.
Datang Power, one of China's leading power producers is planning to add up to six 600 MW (megawatt) coal-fired power generating units in Tangshan, North China's Hebei Province, said a spokesman from Datang Power yesterday. There are two units there already.
Singapore's Temasek Holdings can buy 5 percent of Bank of China - half the initial agreed stake - under a preliminary decision by the mainland's State Council and banking regulator. They also approved stake purchases by three other foreign investors, according to a source. China Poly Group, which has diversified into real estate and the art market since starting life as the trading arm of the mainland military, plans to set up a financial venture this year with Credit Suisse, Switzerland's second-biggest bank, as a 15 percent partner. January 12, 2006
A unit of Macquarie Bank, Australia's largest investment bank, and Dalian- based property developer Wanda Group plan to raise at least US$100 million (HK$780 million) by listing a real estate investment trust in Hong Kong, in only the second such listing based on mainland properties. The value of new home loans in Hong Kong probably plunged by half to HK$50 billion in the second half of 2005 from HK$93 billion in the first as rising interest rates discouraged flat buyers, according to a mortgage referral agency.
Hong Kong companies will have to justify their offers of generous "expat packages" to foreign employees under an anti-racism bill now in an "advanced stage of drafting". The government last night pledged to look into the relationship between PCCW and other associated entities if company boss Richard Li Tzar-kai wants to buy other media in person or through PCCW.
A senior health official from Australia - who is not a doctor and cannot speak Cantonese - has been selected as the new chief executive of the 50,000-strong Hospital Authority after a six-month search. Hutchison Whampoa, the ports-to-telecommunications conglomerate, is considering spinning off its Chinese herbal medicine business on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange, the second board that is equivalent to the Growth Enterprise Market in Hong Kong, according to a source close to the company.
Forecasts of the growth of China's telecoms market (2006-10), Compound annual growth rate of mobile phone users: 9%, Compound annual growth rate of 3G subscribers:268%, Compound annual growth rate of broadband Internet users: 22%. China could become the most important Asian destination port for Qantas Airways, as the Australian airline plans to turn the country into its primary transit port for Aussies traveling to Europe.
Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts is negotiating to open a luxury hotel on the upper floors of the 432-metre high West Tower being built in Guangzhou, according to property industry sources. January 11, 2006
Hong Kong has become the third most expensive place in the world to have an office, according to the 2006 Global Office Occupancy Costs Survey by DTZ Debenham Tie Leung. Education reforms are driving teachers to suicide and should be temporarily suspended, teacher representatives have warned. The call Monday follows the deaths of two teachers, who jumped from their flats last week after complaining about work pressure. Secretary for Justice Wong Yan-lung has rebuffed a new wave of threats from South Korean politicians and union members, vowing the 14 detainees will face charges of unlawful assembly arising from last month's anti-World Trade Organization protests.
The Hang Seng Index closed at its highest level in almost five years yesterday in the heaviest day of trading since the government intervened in August 1998 to prop up the market during the financial crisis.
The recent real estate investment trust frenzy has lured another property developer to the fray, with sources saying Henderson Land Development has mandated Macquarie, Deutsche Bank and HSBC to help spin off a US$400 million to US$500 million reit.
Credit Suisse First Boston had
poached a senior executive from Morgan Stanley's India brokerage joint venture
to revive its dormant securities sales and trading business in the South Asian
powerhouse, sources said yesterday.
Brazil's Gerdau SA, Latin America's largest steelmaker, is talking with Chinese steel makers about possible acquisitions or new plant constructions in the nation, which is vigorously consolidating the fragmented steel sector. "We are looking at opportunities in China," Claudio Gerdau Johannpeter, executive vice-president of the company, told China Daily yesterday. "It could be acquisitions, or building green-filed plants through partnership with a Chinese company." Johannpeter said the company is talking with the local firms in China for possible deals, but no concrete project has been secured. Chinese President Hu Jintao said in Beijing Monday that the relationship between China and the Republic of Korea (ROK) has seen rapid development over the past year. China and Japan agreed in Beijing Monday to hold a new round of consultations on the East China Sea gas issue in Beijing at an early date to resolve their gas dispute.
China's biggest out-of-home audio-visual advertising company, Focus Media, announced it will buy rival Target Media in a friendly takeover valued at US$325 million in cash and stock, the largest acquisition so far in China's media industry. Doll Capital Management (DCM), a leading US-based venture capital firm, is strengthening its position in China by bringing in Hurst Lin, co-founder and chief operating officer of Sina Corporation, as a general partner. The National Bureau of Statistics has revised the mainland's economic growth for 2004 to 10.1 per cent from 9.5 per cent after taking into account data from an economic census completed last year. January 10, 2006
Tom Online, a China-focused dot.com business controlled by tycoon Li Ka- shing, said its turnover this year will be given a one-time boost by the football World Cup in Germany in June, after it was awarded exclusive mainland rights by state-owned broadcaster China Central Television to sell mobile phone content based on the tournament.
Secretary for Justice Wong Yan-lung said on Monday the government would handle the detention of 14 protesters arrested during last month's anti-globalisation demonstrations as soon as possible. The Bank of China (BOC) has secured key approval from the State Council to launch a $60 billion Hong Kong initial public offering in the first half of this year, sources close to the situation have revealed. Mainland leaders appear ready to take tougher measures to combat rampant official corruption and bribery among businessmen this year, judging from President Hu Jintao's keynote speech and the communiqué issued after a two-day meeting of the Communist Party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection over the weekend. Morgan Stanley is bracing for a major reshuffle of its top China management with its Hong Kong-based chief executive set to resign. China-based CSM Media Research last week issued its preliminary ratings for Hong Kong television programs - a month earlier than scheduled after the incumbent provider, AC Nielsen, refused to extend its contract to this month after losing a renewal bid.
It is a rise of 11.26 percent, said the sources. China has lowered its customs rate for many times. This did not affect the customs revenue due to the soaring foreign trade, especially imports.
January 9, 2006
Danish-based ISS Group, one of the world's largest property services companies, is planning to buy out its joint venture partner in Beijing and boost its Shanghai workforce.
The Office of the Telecommunications Authority said it will permit fixed-line customers to use their Hong Kong telephone numbers as gateways for overseas calls at Hong Kong prices. Regal Hotels International expects selling prices at its flagship Regalia Bay housing project in Stanley will rise 10 to 20 percent this year amid a shortage of new luxury flats on the market. A Korean lawmaker will meet with Secretary for Justice Wong Yan-lung to try and negotiate a deal for the release of the 11 Korean anti-World Trade Organization protesters who have been detained in Hong Kong since December 18, a Korean government official said.
Hong Kong movie star Tony Leung Ka-fai was sentenced on Friday to two months in jail for drunk driving after ramming his car into the back of a bus last year. Leung, who had pleaded guilty to the charge, was also fined $10,000 and was disqualified from driving for three years, according to a court document. The jail sentence was to be suspended for three years, the document said. The actor, 47, is best known to international audiences as "the Chinaman" in the 1992 romance The Lover. Leung was arrested last October, after his car hit a bus and a breathalyzer test showed that his blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit, the document said. He was arrested and fined for another drunk driving case in 2002. The actor has won numerous acting awards. Recently he was nominated as best leading actor in the upcoming 42nd Golden Horse Film Festival - the equivalent of the Oscars for Mandarin Chinese-language films - for his role as a gangster in Hong Kong triad movie Election.
The Education and Manpower Bureau announced on Friday that day schools and education organisations could now nominate candidates for the seventh election of the Council on Professional Conduct in Education.
China has suggested it may diversify its foreign reserve holdings away from a current heavy focus on the US dollar although analysts said Friday Beijing did not intend a substantial change in policy. Yao Wenyuan, member of the Gang of Four that terrorized China during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, has died. He was 74.
The PBC will maintain a reasonable growth of loans by using a variety of monetary policy tools and advance the market-oriented interest rate forming mechanism. SAFE will improve the management of forex in current accounts,facilitate trade and investment,make further progress in the forex market and improve the managed, floating exchange rate regime.
The owners of nontradable shares in toll-road operator Shenzhen Expressway sweetened their offer to the company's A-share holders in a bid to win their approval of a plan to convert all nontradable shares into ordinary securities. Shenzhen has launched an ambitious plan to turn the border city into a "national innovation centre" by teaming up with Hong Kong universities and opening its doors to talent from across the country.
January 6 - 8, 2006
World-leading financial service firm PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts that funds raised through new IPOs (initial public offerings) in Hong Kong are likely to top the record high of HK$200 billion (US$25.6 billion) this year, surpassing the upward momentum of 2005. Hong Kong recorded the weakest monthly number of home sales in December since the Sars outbreak devastated the property market in 2003, according to official statistics.
A Hong Kong climber has returned to the city from a trek to the South Pole that made him the first Chinese to conquer the highest peaks on seven continents and the two poles.
China's total retail sales of consumer goods in 2005 to top 6 trillion yuan. The rapid expansion of the consumer goods circulating sector helps resolve employment problems. The contradiction between supply and demand in the sector was also eased. The country's biggest oil refiner Sinopec got the government's go-ahead to build a US$3.1-billion petrochemical complex in North China's port city of Tianjin. Seventy-three accountancy firms should be closed down because they have been involved in various illegal activities, such as taking bribes and kickbacks, according to the industry licensing body. China, the world's second-largest soy oil consumer, will launch soy oil futures next Monday in the Dalian Commodity Exchange, a move that is expected to attract more participants and capital to the market.
Underground banking accounts for more than 28 per cent of new lending on the mainland, or about 800 billion yuan a year, according to a government-funded study. Controversial regulations barring vehicles with small engines from driving on main thoroughfares will be eliminated by the end of March, the central government announced yesterday. Two pulp mills and a county-level agency responsible for water discharges have agreed to pay a landmark 2.3 million yuan in compensation to a Baotou water supplier for losses caused by pollution in China's second-biggest river. January 5, 2006
The government is poised to announce a reshuffle that will likely see a new civil service chief appointed when Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology John Tsang leaves for a new job, sources said Wednesday.
China Power International Holdings, one of the mainland's five largest power companies, said it will break into the Hong Kong electricity market as early as the first half of this year as a joint venture in which it has a controlling stake begins supplying power to a small group of industrial and commercial users. Hong Kong's economic growth will slow this year as rising interest rates curb consumer demand and appreciation of the mainland currency crimps export growth, according to Hong Kong University's school of economics and finance. Modern Beauty, one of Hong Kong's leading spa and fitness centers, plans to raise up to HK$194 million from its first share sale to fund expansion at home and in the mainland, sources close to the deal said.
Hong Kong suspended poultry imports on Wednesday from Sichuan following an outbreak of bird flu in the southwestern Chinese province, the government said. Sun Hung Kai Properties is confident of posting double-digit growth this year, with bigger margins from its property developments offsetting the recent slowdown in the sector, according to a senior executive.
China is to introduce over-the-counter transactions in the interbank foreign exchange market and introduce market makers to provide liquidity.
The negotiations for the creation of a mega-software outsourcing company by Chinese companies, India's software giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Microsoft are expected to be concluded in one month, giving China's ambition to develop its software industry a big boost.
Guangzhou has raised the cost of water and bottled gas in the face of public resistance but an economist says the impact is likely to be confined to restaurants unless the prices of transportation, piped gas and electricity also rise. Dangdang.com, the mainland online bookstore and electronic-commerce site, is hopeful of growing into a company with a market capitalisation of at least US$500 million when it gets its United States listing, which could be as soon as the third quarter of this year. January 4, 2006
Hong Kong's largest pay-TV operator, i-Cable Communications, said it is creating separate business units for its content production and program procurement divisions in an attempt to drive advertising and content sales growth. North Asia Strategic Holdings, a GEM board-listed steel trading company formerly known as iSteelAsia Holdings, said it plans to raise HK$1.18 billion by selling preference shares to 20 investors, including US investment bank Goldman Sachs, which will become the largest shareholder once the preference shares are converted into ordinary shares. The days of cheap fuel for taxi and minibuses appear numbered as the administration intends to review liquefied petroleum gas prices monthly instead of twice a year to help alleviate long queues and supply problems at government dedicated filling stations. A senior officer for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) died on Tuesday after falling from a hillside on Lantau Island. Hong Kong's retail sales rose 4.2 per cent year on year to $15.8 billion in November, government statistics released on Tuesday showed. Hong Kong’s police force and South Korean anti-globalisation protesters who battled during last month’s WTO summit here have topped a year-end popularity poll, local radio reported on Tuesday.
Auditors concluded that the number of cases involving irregularities was on the decrease while budget management was improving.
The previous estimate for last year's economic growth was 9.4 percent. This figure was adjusted according to the newly-revised GDP in 2004.
Major Forbidden City hall to close for two-year repair - The most important building in one of China's top tourist attractions is closing for two years for renovation work. Repairs on the Hall of Supreme Harmony Taihedian in Chinese at the Forbidden City, or Palace Museum, are due to begin on Friday. They are expected to be completed by 2008, in time for the Beijing Olympic Games. To make the hall look how it did when first built, workers will use original materials and procedures.
China Life Insurance (Group) is in talks to buy a majority stake in Dazhong Insurance of China for more than 270 million yuan (HK$259.55 million) as the largest life insurer in the country moves to expand into the property insurance market. Guangdong's economy is expected to have weathered the effects of a stronger yuan and power and labour shortages and grown 13 per cent last year, beating the official 8 per cent target, economists said. January 3, 2006
Australian telecoms giant Telstra plans to boost its presence in the Chinese mainland, possibly using its newly merged business unit in Hong Kong as a springboard, due to increasing activities from foreign telecom operators. The government has proposed radically changing its relationship with the power companies to encourage steep tariff cuts and cleaner emissions, but critics worry this will not do enough to reduce pollution. Poly (Hong Kong) Investments, an electricity supplier and property investor, plans to develop eight million square meters of space in the mainland over the next five years as it realigns the company to make property development its main business. Hang Lung Group has defeated a court appeal by rival developer Sino Land, which had refused to pay it nearly HK$750 million owed on a hotel completed soon after the 1997 property market crash. Morgan Stanley and a division of the World Bank announced the purchase of a 14.33 per cent stake in China's largest cement producer yesterday, heralding what industry insiders expect will be a new flood of private equity cash into the mainland. Securities and Futures Commission director of enforcement Alan Linning has quit to join investment bank JP Morgan Chase Bank next year, the latest executive to leave the watchdog for greener pastures. Listings by leading mainland banks should help propel Hong Kong's stock market to another fund-raising record next year, with $200 billion likely to be tapped through initial public offerings, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. The chairman of United Microelectronics, one of Taiwan's most prominent companies, announced his resignation amid an unusually public row with the island's regulators. United Microelectronics Corp (UMC) chairman Robert Tsao plans to quit to help fend off investigations by Taiwan's regulator on the world's second-largest maker of made-to-order chips. City Telecom chairman Ricky Wong Wai-kay has complained against the telecommunications regulator for delaying the release of a report that he says could help consumers when choosing a broadband service. Mainland television maker Skyworth Digital Holdings yesterday blamed cut-throat market competition for a 75.3 per cent decline in net profit for the six months to September, the latest setback for the scandal-hit firm still suspended from trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange.
The 10 pieces of most highlighted
Chinese economic news in 2005 have been unveiled on Dec. 29 in Beijing. The
evaluation and selection was sponsored by the Economic Information Daily and
China Mobile and selected by editors-in-chief of 17 Beijing-based media,
including People's Daily, as well as well-known Chinese economists. The top ten,
sequenced chronologically, are:
Foreign journalists will have increased and wider access to government departments and find it easier to cover emergencies, China's top information officials said. Though China's national grain output in 2005 hit 480 million tons, the demand in 2006 is to exceed the output by 15 million tons.
The nation's biggest oil producer, PetroChina got the government's go-ahead to build an ethylene plant worth over 20 billion yuan (US$2.5 billion) in the south-western region, and is pondering a refinery nearby, the company said. Chinese color picture tube exporters should prepare for the coming European Union anti-dumping investigation, the Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products warned. China's shipbuilding tonnage is expected to reach a record high of more than 12.5 million this year, grabbing 17 per cent of the global shipbuilding market, up from 14.3 per cent in 2004.
December 31, 2005 - January 2, 2006 Happy New Year
Macau Chief Executive Edmund Ho said 2009-10 would be "too early" for Macau to tackle political reform of its electoral system. Hong Kong on Thursday said it had partially lifted a ban on United States beef imports that became effective two years ago. About 35 South Korean protesters marched through Hong Kong on Thursday, demanding that charges be dropped against 11 family members and comrades arrested at a WTO riot in this city. The case of Hong Kong journalist Ching Cheong, whose detention on the mainland has entered its eighth month, is to be referred to prosecutors by the end of next week, the chief executive said. The value of new home loans drawn down by borrowers fell for the sixth consecutive month last month as fears of interest rate rises continued to weigh on an increasingly sluggish property market.
China is putting its marathon anti-graft crackdown online, launching a website for the public to report corrupt officials, state media said on Thursday. The site adds to efforts to assure China's public that the ruling Communist Party takes complaints seriously at a time when many say they face retaliation for reporting abuses. The new site is run by the party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Thursday. Liu Fengyan, the commission's deputy secretary, said it marks "another step forward by the government in curbing corruption through the introduction of strict prevention and punishment measures", according to Xinhua. Beijing has punished thousands of officials in an effort to stem graft and other abuses that have outraged China's public, threatening to erode acceptance of communist rule. On Tuesday, a former Cabinet minister was sentenced to life in prison on charges of taking bribes. The new website offers Chinese villagers and others a way to lodge complaints while avoiding local authorities, who some complain refuse to take action or retaliate against petitioners. Mr Liu said more than 67,000 songs with anti-corruption themes were composed and over 24,000 singing concerts held in the past year "to educate key officials about self-discipline", the report said. By 2020, renewable energy is expected to account for 15 percent of national consumption, up from the current seven percent.
China's stock indexes rose to the highest in two months Wednesday. China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, known as Sinopec, gained after it announced it would receive government subsidies to cover the cost of increasing oil prices. JAPANESE Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said yesterday that he will strive to develop friendly ties with China in 2006 after a year in which bilateral relations hit their lowest in decades. Political ties between the two nations went into deep freeze following a series of bilateral spats over history textbooks, disputed gas fields and violent anti-Japanese protests in several Chinese cities in April. Ties with South Korea have also soured over Japan's refusal to atone for wartime atrocities.
*News information are obtained via various sources deemed reliable, but not guaranteed
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Hong Kong:
Managing director Thomas Jefferson Wu says Hopewell is eagerly awaiting central
government approval for its 29km bridge project, which
is estimated to cost as
much as $60 billion. Toll road operator Hopewell Highway Infrastructure has
boosted its reserves for the long-awaited Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge project
after delivering a forecast-beating 31.1 per cent jump in interim profit to
$563.79 million.
Nearly 200 drivers of taxis, and also
minibuses, that run on LPG drove slowly through Central yesterday to protest
against a new price-adjustment mechanism they blame for a rise in fuel prices by
up to 40 per cent. Disgruntled drivers say the new mechanism, which allows an
LPG price review every month instead of twice a year, is costing them up to
$2,000 a month.
China:
The world's largest personal credit
information databank has been put into operation in China, with the number of
persons covered reaching 486 million by late January, the People's Bank of China
has said.
Wheeling out the big guns ... Justin Chiu
of Cheung Kong says the developer hopes to benefit from improving market
conditions by bringing its 924-unit Apex development to market as soon as this
week.
Fighting pollution, Beijing is keen
to ensure the 2008 Olympics showcase environmental management.
He Guangbei, vice-chairman and chief
executive at Bank of China (Hong Kong), said Hong Kong should play a more active
role in yuan business to help "internationalise" the currency. His comments at
the bank's spring reception yesterday came just a day after Financial Secretary
Henry Tang Ying-yen called on the central government in his budget speech to
expand the scope of yuan business conducted by Hong Kong lenders. However, Mr He
said although the central government was taking an active approach towards Hong
Kong banks conducting more yuan business, mainland regulations had to be taken
into consideration.
Knots to kilowatts: The wind-driven
turbine on Lamma Island, which was officially opened yesterday.
Vice-Premier Wu Yi vowed yesterday to intensify her fight against illegally
copied goods - not to fend off complaints from Washington but to spur the
mainland's own ambitions to become a technological power.
The Western Market celebrates its 100th
anniversary this year with a carnival starting on Sunday that will include
heritage-photograph and stamp-design competitions, ballroom and Latin dance
contests and a made-in-Hong Kong fashion competition. The operator, Lifestyle
Group, will spend $1 million on events throughout the year.
Ronnie Chan was upbeat on prospects
as he announced Hang Lung's results yesterday. Hang Lung Properties posted a
0.76 per cent rise in interim profit yesterday, with rental growth and a
revaluation of investment properties offsetting a fall in residential sales.
PCCW deputy chairman and managing
director Jack So Chak-kwong (right) and Supersun's Charles Chan seal their
network alliance.
Plans for the West Kowloon cultural
district - including the controversial mandate for a canopy - have been scrapped
and will again be redrawn because the three short-listed developers were unhappy
about changes to the initial proposal. A developers' group welcomed the
government decision to rethink the West Kowloon project, while a delay in the
area's home supply may benefit the district's residential market, according to
other real estate interests. Putting the best face on the backtracking over the
West Kowloon arts hub, which follows closely on the heels of the political
reform debacle, Chief Secretary for Administration Rafael Hui insisted the move
was ultimately made to avoid accusations of "collusion."
Secretary for Financial Services and the
Treasury Frederick Ma Si-hang refused to give away any secrets about tomorrow's
government budget when he attended last night's South China Morning Post
Fund Manager of the Year awards ceremony. However, he was happy to tell the fund
managers that the bill exempting offshore funds from paying profit tax would be
voted on in a Legislative Council meeting next week.
Some of Shanghai's growing population
of 2.6 million elderly are lucky to get a place at the table at a government
home as the city wonders how to cope.
Chinese-American crew members of the
USS Blue Ridge look forward to shore leave shortly after the Pacific fleet
flagship docked in Hong Kong. The 35-year-old Blue Ridge, which crew members
said would stay in Hong Kong for four days, docked at Ocean Terminal in Tsim Sha
Tsui. There are up to 20 native Chinese on board.
Biosino president Wu Lebin says the mainland pharmaceuticals manufacturer plans
to raise up to $99 million from its initial offering.
Foreign Ministry Commissioner Yang
Wenchang (left) joins Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen at the Lunar New
Year reception hosted by the Hong Kong Federation of Fujian Associations. Mr
Yang confirmed he would retire next week and said he would miss Hong Kong, a
city he loves, after returning to the mainland. In a new move to woo the
pro-Beijing sector, Mr Tsang will invite Hong Kong deputies to the National
People's Congress to a seminar at Government House on February 24.
Although much has been achieved on the
international accounting front since the collapse of Enron four years ago, even
more changes lie ahead, according to Sir David Tweedie. The chairman of the
International Accounting Standards Board, on one of his regular visits to Hong
Kong, yesterday said more had to be done in cases of consolidation where the
transparency of off-balance items of listed companies needed to be improved to
prevent subsidiaries being used to hide debt problems, as was the case with
Enron.
A crowd gathers at a temple fair
dedicated to candied haws, a traditional sweet on a stick, held yesterday in
Qingdao city, Shandong province. The fair dates to the Ming dynasty (1368-1644)
and is celebrated from the 16th to 18th day of the first lunar month.
More than 1,000 students and teachers gather at the HKCWC Fung Yiu King Memorial
Secondary School in Ma On Shan yesterday to remember two teachers and three
students who died in the Pat Sin Leng hill fire 10 years ago. On the second of a
two-day commemoration of the hiking trip that went tragically wrong, speakers
recalled how one of the teachers, Chau Chi-chai, kept indicating an escape route
to fleeing children, even though he was engulfed in flames.
Virginia Tam gave up her job as an
insurance broker to sell paintings online. About 724,000 people in the US make
their living trading on auction sites. While there are no figures available for
Hong Kong, operators say the number using auction sites as a business channel is
growing rapidly. Yahoo! Hong Kong, for example, estimates that budding
entrepreneurs account for half the items sold on its site.
Performers wearing masks present a ritual
dance known as Nuo in Lanzhou, Gansu province. Nuo is an ancient festival aimed
at exorcising evil spirits believed to cause disease. The festival is
traditionally held around the Lunar New Year period.
Owners of racing pigeons have begun killing them or releasing them into the wild
in the face of a new law requiring a $10,000 licence for keeping the birds, with
heavy fines for non-compliance.
Cathay Pacific Airways' bid to begin
flights to Moscow next month has met turbulence with unresolved commercial and
operational issues delaying the maiden flight to the Russian capital.
At least six China internet firms will
tap overseas markets this year to raise between US$500 million and US$1 billion
in initial public offerings, according to an industry research report. Mainland
internet companies are expecting new controls over their content that would
prevent them from posting political and current affairs articles published by
metropolitan newspapers on their websites, sources said.
Rogue trader Nick Leeson, who brought down
Barings Bank in the mid-1990s after recording £862 million ($11.7 billion) of
derivatives trading losses, says inadequate internal controls are the main
culprit of corporate collapses such as Barings, China Aviation Oil and Livedoor.
"There was massive negligence [at Barings]. They should have exposed my
activities long before [they did]," he said at the IFR Asia investment banking
award ceremony last night.
Students wait to register for the general
university entrance examination for art students yesterday in Jinan, capital of
eastern Shandong province. The exam is held today.
A time to remember: Richard Li Tzar-kai,
younger son of tycoon Li Ka-shing, visits the tomb of his mother Li Chong
Yuet-ming, at the Hong Kong Buddhist Cemetery at Cape Collinson Road, Chai Wan,
yesterday, a week after it was damaged by tomb raiders on Lunar New Year's Day.
Richard Li, who brought incense and offerings to the grave, said he had been
overseas and had only returned to the city on Saturday.
Squadrons of loyal followers are
defending US skater Michelle Kwan's name on the Internet in the run-up to the
Winter Olympics.
Higher standards of living have seen
people spend more money during the Lunar New Year holiday and greater numbers on
the move. Guangzhou has experienced a big surge in travellers, with more than
200,000 arrivals expected at Guangzhou Railway Station yesterday.
China Construction Bank is restructuring
in order to become a modern commercial lender, says chairman Guo Shuqing. China
Construction Bank is to revamp its bloated middle management - an exercise
involving 30,000 staff - to strengthen risk management and curb corruption.
Jardine Aviation Services will become
the first Hong Kong company to tap the lucrative ground-handling business in the
mainland.
Peking University professor He Weifang says China needs more professionally
trained public intellectuals who can freely voice opinions on social issues.
A girl cries as she is pushed over the
fence at Disneyland after the gates were closed, leaving unlucky holidaymakers
irate. Travel agencies have warned of legal action against Hong Kong Disneyland
for losses and damage to their reputation caused by a ticketing system they say
is flawed.
Visitors to the Disney theme park
remonstrate with a security officer after being refused entry. Hundreds were
disappointed when the gates closed at 11.30am. Angry scenes shattered the
holiday mood at Hong Kong Disneyland on Thursday as hundreds of ticket-holders
stormed the gates and climbed over security fences after being told the park was
full.
Secretary for Financial Services
Frederick Ma at yesterday's inauguration of the Gold & Silver Exchange in Sheung
Wan.
A
Chinese sales girl displays a Chinese copy of the movie "Memoirs of a Geisha" at
a video store in Beijing, on Thursday. The Chinese government has canceled the
release of the film — a decision made amid speculation that officials are
worried the sight of Chinese actresses playing Japanese geishas could stir a
backlash
Good fortune may well lie ahead in
this Year of the Dog, following the rare clear January skies and mild weather
which helped make last night's fireworks display the most dazzling in years.
Tse Wai-chuen is surrounded by scrolls as
she gives youngsters a lesson in calligraphy at her Tung Chung MTR station
stall.
Most would happily trade the quality of life that a place like Hangzhou offers
with its breathtaking West Lake (left), for the pollution of Beijing (right).
Donald Tsang checks goods at the
Victoria Park fair yesterday in celebration of the Lunar New Year. 
Here's to a banner year: Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing chairman Charles Lee
Yeh-kwong (left) and chief executive Paul Chow Man-yiu extend their best wishes
for the Year of the Dog. Mr Lee's banner wishes everyone to have a "prosperous
business", while Mr Chow's says "enter and leave safely". The blessing usually
applies to travelers but Mr Chow says in this case it wishes safe investments
for brokers and investors. 
Three executives who are role models for
the next generation in the IT industry: (from left) Alfred Chuang, John Chen and
James Lau. Picture by Jonathan Wong, Antony Dickson.
Chongqing police take part in
an anti-crime drill on inline roller skates. They are the mainland's first
roller-skating police.
Passengers cross into Shenzhen at the Lok
Ma Chau border checkpoint yesterday. Immigration officers will be redeployed to
cope with holiday travelers.
Tommei Tong holds court as Tom Group's new
chief executive yesterday. She says it will be pretty much business as usual
direction-wise but she plans to strengthen investor relations so that the market
will learn more about the company's publishing, outdoor media, sports and
television businesses. She hopes this will result in a better performance of the
company's share price. Ms Tong says the group will grow through acquisitions and
by organic expansion.
When it come to maths, Ho Ching-yin
(above) has the answers. At just 11, the Lam Tin Methodist Primary School pupil
has won a first-division prize in the elite phase of the World Class Arena
mathematics and problem-solving tests ... making him the youngest student to win
an award at the top level. The World Class Arena tests, which are open to
students from Hong Kong, England and the mainland, attracted 2,400 local
students, with 20 per cent managing to achieve distinctions. The three best
performers won scholarships to an academy in the UK. Ching-yin missed out.
Education bureau staff link arms with Fanny Law in a show of support as they
leave yesterday's meeting with schoolteachers. The education minister unveiled
an independent commission to investigate teachers' workload and pressure, a day
after thousands of teachers and their families marched to voice their anger at
the pace of education reforms.
Immigration Department cadets demonstrate
self-defense skills at the department's new training school in Tuen Mun. A
scheme allowing foreign workers a maximum of a year to find jobs or start their
own businesses in Hong Kong could be introduced within six months, the
immigration chief said yesterday.
Saudi King Abdullah with Foreign
Minister Li Zhaoxing greets mainland officials as he arrives in Beijing for a
visit.
Troupe members rehearse for their
return to Taikoo Shing, where they will entertain audiences at the Cityplaza
mall. The troupe has performed in Hong Kong for the past two Lunar New Years.
This year, it will comprise 40 elite acrobats, contortionists and gymnasts. The
group has won numerous awards, including the gold prize at the 14th
International Acrobatic Competition of Belgium and a Silver Clown Award at the
Monte Carlo Circus Festival. 
Shun Tak Holdings' Daisy Ho (left),
Stanley Ho and Pansy Ho say the group will secure the best terms for its
projects in Macau. 
Chinese Cuisine Training
Institute students serve prawn cakes, silver flower and mulberry teas and soups
at a seminar yesterday on preventing bird flu. The dishes are recommended by
Chen Jian-ping, of the University of Hong Kong's School of Chinese Medicine, to
boost immunity and metabolism.
The
MTR carried a record 857.95 million passengers last year, 2.87 per cent up on
2004, driven by a stronger economy and the opening of the Disneyland Resort
line. The corporation's Airport Express line saw the biggest increase, 6.12 per
cent to 8.49 million passengers, on the back of a buoyant tourism sector. The
2km line serving the Disney theme park that opened in August has seen a monthly
average of about 10,000 passengers.
A replica of the first car made by Karl Benz in 1886 is displayed during the
"Never Fading Legend" circuit show of Mercedes-Benz's classic cars at the China
International Trade Centre in Beijing. The show includes six cars from the
Mercedes-Benz Museum. These cars represent the history of the auto industry
between 1886 and 1980.
A young boy holds a placard pleading for
his mother, a migrant worker who left home in search of work, to return home to
Xian, Shaanxi province, for the Lunar New Year holiday.
The
new trading hall at the Hong Kong stock exchange, which began operating
yesterday, has fewer booths than the old square-shaped design.
High rents and stiff competition among incumbent retailers have led China
Paradise Electronics Retail chairman Chen Xiao to reconsider opening in Hong
Kong and renew the firm's mainland focus, with 90 new stores planned this year.
Sellers outnumber buyers on the
opening day of the inaugural Hong Kong Spring Fair, the first trade event to be
held at the new AsiaWorld-Expo near the airport. "We knew it would be somewhat
quiet given the location and newness of the fair, but we didn't expect it to be
this quiet," one stallholder said. The fair, with exhibitors from 17 countries
and regions, will run until Friday.
Tycoon Stanley Ho Hung-sun (left) and
Director of Social Welfare Paul Tang Kwok-wai yesterday distribute lai see
packets to Chan Yuk-ying, Chan Yuk-chi and Yun Lai-ying. The event took place at
a Tang Shiu Kin and Ho Tim Charitable Fund New Year celebration for the elderly
at Tung Wah Hospital in Sheung Wan.
Geely Automobile Holdings, which is racing to
be the among the first mainland carmakers in the US market, will have low-priced
sedans on sale in the United States within two years, chairman and founder Li
Shufu announced Tuesday at the Detroit Auto Show.
Lo Chung-mau performs a
transplant last night. HK surgeons win top honour for liver transplants - Four
surgeons from the University of Hong Kong's liver transplant team were awarded a
top scientific prize by Beijing yesterday. It is the first time local scientists
have won first-class honours at the mainland's top science and technology award.
The team's achievement in "adult-to-adult right lobe live donor liver
transplantation" was one of 800 entries competing for the State Scientific and
Technological Progress Award. Fan Sheung-tat, from HKU's surgery department, and
team members Lo Chung-mau, Liu Chi-leung and Chan See-ching have successfully
refined surgical procedures to increase patients' chances of survival.
Conventionally, liver grafts from a living donor are from the left lobe, which
is generally too small for most adult recipients.
Passers-by in Mongkok take shelter from a
burst pipe that soaked shoppers and flooded shops and a nightclub yesterday. The
pipe burst when workers were carrying out excavation work at the junction of Soy
Street and Portland Street at about 2.15pm. Police cordoned off the two roads
until Water Supplies Department staff switched off the water at 3pm. The
Drainage Services Department said affected tenants could seek compensation from
the government and that the incident is under investigation.
CNOOC and Its
subsidiary signed an agreement with South Atlantic Petroleum Limited (SAPETRO)
to acquire a 45 percent stake in an offshore oil mining license (OML) 130 in
Nigeria for 2.268 billion USD in cash.
Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales meets
with Chinese President Hu Jintao at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on
Monday. Mr Morales arrived in China on Sunday on his world tour that includes
stops in Europe and South Africa.
Farmers in Anhui province are brought up
to date on technology as Beijing moves to modernise farming in the countryside.
Two pandas play at the China Giant Panda
Research Centre in Wolong, Southwest China's Sichuan Province in this undated
photo. The pair has been chosen as a goodwill gift to the Taiwan compatriots,
the State Forestry Administration said Friday.
Silver Grant International Industries is
on track to recoup by the end of March its 830 million yuan initial investment
in a 56.9 billion yuan batch of bad loans bought from its ultimate mainland
controlling shareholder, China Cinda Asset Management. Managing director Gao
Jianmin yesterday told the media that by the end of last year, it had disposed
of about 700 million yuan of the loans and recovered more than 600 million yuan
of cash in the process.
A
public housing resident uses a new e-card to pay her rent at Ho Man Tin estate.
The e-card is intended to make rent payment more convenient and hopes are that
it may cut down late payments by 2 per cent. Public tenants can bring along the
new e-card for quick identification and pay with cash at any estate offices
under the Housing Authority. The department will expand the payment network to
convenience stores by the middle of this year.
Li Xiaolin says the new venture will source electricity from Guangdong to Hong
Kong. After spending almost a year formulating its business plan on breaking
into Hong Kong's electricity market, a consortium led by Li Xiaolin, the
daughter of former Chinese premier Li Peng, has left more questions unanswered.
A tourist walks among icicles formed on
tree branches at a park as part of the annual winter festival held in Harbin, in
northern China's Heilongjiang province. The northern city which enjoys minus 30
degress celsius temperature and abundant snow promotes the winter festival
annually to bring in needed tourism dollars. 
A visitor stares in awe at a glass
reproduction of Beijing's famed Nine Dragon Wall, at the Jiaojiang Wu Zixiong
Glass Artwork Museum in Taizhou city, Zhejiang province.
Students from Sun Fong Chung
Primary School in Tai Po inspect a 19th-century hand pump once used by
firefighters on Cheung Chau. The pump is among relics relating to the civil
service on display at the Hong Kong Museum of History.
Beijing scored
highly yesterday for its efficient response to an incident in the city's CBD.
Its reaction reflected a growing capability to cope with emergencies. This
capability is crucial for a mega-city that is home to 15 million people and is
to play host to the Olympic Games in less than three years. All subscribers to
China Mobile's service in Beijing yesterday received a text message telling them
to circumvent a stretch of the eastern Third Ring Road, where a sewage plumbing
leakage caused a part of the road to cave in. The message played a key role in
spreading the news and alleviating traffic congestion, which could have been
much more serious than it was. Following its prepared plan for contingencies,
the city also immediately mobilized different teams to stem the leakage, to
repair the road and to adjust routes of 31 bus lines originally running along
the stretch of the road. Everything was dealt with in good order. Progress was
also well publicized by radio, television, and the Internet. The city, with its
effective measures, appeared totally different from the one which acted clumsily
following a snowfall that caused a city-wide standstill four years ago.
The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ plans to
become the fourth direct foreign investor in Bank of China, the country's
second-largest commercial lender, to tap the growing personal wealth in the
fast-growing economy.
People choose decorations for
the coming traditional Spring Festival in a shop in Nanjing, capital of east
China's Jiangsu Province. Hundreds of festival decorations have surged into
market as the Chinese Lunar New Year, which falls on January 29 this year, draws
near.
A man checks a traditional lantern,
which is used as a New Year decoration, on Thursday in Shanghai. Shanghai
residents are busy preparing to usher in the Year of the Dog, and the Chinese
New Year, called the Spring Festival, which falls on January 29. 
