Hong Kong Newspaper Highlights March 29, 2001
HONG KONG, March 29 Asia Pulse - Highlights of today's newspapers:
THE SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
- Proposed provisions in the corporate rescue bill, which may be in place within 12 months, could help to curb fraudulent trading by holding directors liable and hitting them in the pocket.
- Net profit of toll-road operator Road King Infrastructure declined 29.85 per cent to HK$428.09 million for the year to December 31.
- Standard Bank Group of South Africa is believed to be the sole bidder for Jardine Fleming Bank.
- The Internet will enable retailers and suppliers to respond to consumer demand faster, John Pepper, chairman of Procter & Gamble, said in Hong Kong yesterday.
- Growth forecasts in Asia are too high, and "massive" forecast downgrades are expected as regional economies have been deteriorating faster than expected, according to ABN Amro.
- Greencool Technology Holdings plans to invest 350 million yuan (about HK$328 million) this year to set up three subsidiaries after posting a sharp increase in net profit last year.
- Two cargo-terminal operating red chips look set to expand their operations in China to tap anticipated growth after the country's accession to the World Trade Organisation.
- The economic slowdown will result in zero growth in grade A office rentals in Central this year, according to JP Morgan.
- Kerry Properties has realised HK$1 billion in residential sales in the first quarter, with a full-year sales target set at HK$7 billion.
- A group of 22 small estate-agencies has formed an alliance with online agent House18.com to compete with bigger players for a larger slice of the market.
- Legend Holdings, China's dominant personal computer manufacturer, plans to increase its headcount by between 10 per cent and 15 per cent this year to meet its sales expansion plans, according to executive Mary Ma.
THE HONG KONG STANDARD
- Pacific Century CyberWorks [PCCW] reported a larger-than-expected net loss of $6.91 billion yesterday, taking huge hits from its boom-to-bust Internet investments and from the premium it paid for its merger with Hong Kong Telecom [HKT].
- Richard Li Tzar-kai kept his distance from the press again yesterday - this time 12 floors of it.
- An American businessman and a German lawyer have been charged with fraud in Hong Kong after the seizure of US$15 trillion (HK$117 trillion) in fake securities - believed to be the largest such seizure anywhere in the world.
- Hong Kong will have to make movies in English if it wants to lift the sagging movie industry here and make films more attractive to North American audiences, according to the Hong Kong Trade Development Council.
- Two former Allied Group executives who were ordered to stand trial by the Court of Final Appeal last week over an alleged $673 million commercial fraud were granted bail yesterday after handing over nearly $40 million in cash and sureties.
- Deedee Lynn Magno first saw Miss Saigon when she was 16 and on a visit to London.
- The suspect arrested in connection with the murder of Constable Leung Shing-yan was released unconditionally yesterday after spending two days in custody.
- A racehorsre owner is suing the Hong Kong Jockey Club for $2.4 million after his prize-winning horse was destroyed following an accident in which it bashed its head while swimming in a training pool.
- A mentally ill woman acted like a female Fagin, leading two boys' home runaways on a crime spree around Hong Kong Island.
- Hong Kong teenagers arrested in Shenzhen this week for possession of rave-party drugs at a disco may face three months of compulsory treatment in mainland drug rehabilitation centres.
- A leading bank has agreed to refund in full an "unreasonable" collection charge of $32,000 for a credit-card debt to a customer.
- Bodies of the two women who died in Sunday's bus crash in Shantou will be returned to the SAR after officials finally agreed on the arrangements yesterday.
- Three Democrats who recently climbed to the party's second-rung leadership have had their home-return permits confiscated without explanation by the mainland authorities in the past few days.
- Outgoinhg Chief Secretary Anson Chan Fang On-sang is preparing a series of "significant" speeches for her final month in office, culminating in a parting shot on how to improve the relationship between the executive and the legislature.
ASIA PULSE
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