PRESS DIGEST - Hong Kong - Sept 22
(Updates with additional item)
HONG KONG, Sept 22 (Reuters) - These are some of the leading stories in Hong Kong newspapers on Tuesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
-- Powerlong Real Estate and Ausnutria Dairy Corp could raise up to HK$7.39 billion in initial public offerings, of which Ausnutria, a Sino-Australia milk powder import joint venture, plans to sell up to HK$1.76 billion worth of shares at HK$3.70-HK$5.10 each in flotation, according to sales documents.
-- The Macau government announced that junket commissions, which pay middle men for bringing high rollers to casinos, issue them credit for gambling and collect debts, would be capped at 1.25 percent of VIP gambling chip sales, effective Tuesday. Casinos have until October to amend their contracts with junket agents. The news helped boost gaming stocks on Monday.
HONG KONG ECONOMIC JOURNAL
-- The retail public offering portion of listing hopeful Peak Sport Products was seen 20 times oversubscribed as close of public subscription on Monday, with HK$3.8 billion fund being frozen, according to market sources.
HONG KONG ECONOMIC TIMES
-- The grey market price of Chinese pharmaceutical products distributor Sinopharm (1099.HK) was seen 25-30 percent above its HK16 per share issue price.
-- The international placing portion of Wynn Macau, a spinoff of Macau operations of Las Vegas casino Wynn Resorts (WYNN.O), has been five times oversubscribed, according to market sources.
MING PAO
-- Four people pleaded quilty and were sentenced to nine months in prison in the city's first listing fraud case for using false identity card numbers and addresses in making multiple applications in seven initial public offerings in 2006, a violation of the one-application-per-person rule.
-- China Energy Development (0228.HK) planned to sell up to 604.78 million shares at HK$0.39 each or a 15.2 percent discount to Monday's close to third-party investors, raising HK$235.9 million to fund acquisition.
-- Department store operator, AEON Stores (0984.HK), which posted a nearly 50 percent decrease in first-half net profit, said it was still hard to see a short-term recovery in the consumer market, according to managing director Lam Man Tin.
APPLE DAILY
-- Wilmar International (WLIL.SI), controlled by the family of Tycoon Robert Kuok, is set to spin off its China operations raising HK$23.4-31.2 billion in a Hong Kong initial public offering with public subscription to be opened on Oct. 15 and trading in the shares to begin on Oct. 23.
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