PRESS DIGEST - Hong Kong - June 5
HONG KONG, June 5 (Reuters) - These are some of the leading stories in Hong Kong newspapers on Friday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
HONG KONG ECONOMIC JOURNAL
-- Private property developer Chinachem Group said it expected Hong Kong property prices to rise 10 percent in 2010 as the property market recovered. The company's land bank was sufficient for use over the next four years and it would take an aggressive approach to increase land reserve.
-- Sun Hung Kai Properties (0016.HK) plans to launch five projects comprising 3,300 units in the second half year, taking advantage of a pick up in transaction volume and ample liquidity flowing into the property market, according to a marketing executive.
MING PAO
-- Guangdong Investment Ltd (0270.HK) won a tender to buy a site in Tianjin for development into a large-scale modern shopping mall with investment totalling about 2.13 billion yuan ($311.7 million). SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
-- Hong Kong recorded the third-biggest decline in office occupancy costs after Singapore and New York, with office rents slumping almost 30 percent in the first quarter of 2009 as the global financial crisis hit home, according to a survey by property consultant CB Richard Ellis.
-- China Telecom (0728.HK) almost doubled its marketing budget to 957 million yuan, from 481 million yuan, in the first four months in a bid to encourage mainland mobile-phone users to subscribe to its 3G service. China Telecom, China Mobile (0941.HK), and China Unicom (0762.HK) spent 2.63 billion yuan on television and print advertising during the period, up 14.5 percent from a year earlier, according to media monitoring firm Nielsen.
-- Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (0388.HK) chief executive-designate Charles Li, who is currently chairman of JP Morgan China and will become the first first mainlander to run the exchange, said he would encourage more foreign companies to list in the territory. -- June 4 student leader Wuer Kaixi, who had intended to turn himself in to the Chinese government's liaison office in Macau was deported to Taiwan on Thursday after he was denied entry and spent a night in Macau airport. -- The number of group visitors to Macau fell 30 percent in May amid a crackdown on low-fare tours that involve compulsory shopping, according to a Macau tourism industry leader.
THE STANDARD
-- Alibaba.com (1688.HK) said it would waive the two-year lock-up restrictions on its eight cornerstone investors allowing the immediate sale of HK$2.2 billion worth of shares.
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