REFILE-PRESS DIGEST - China - April 11
(Corrects items under SECURITIES TIMES, to state Guangzhou city in Guangdong Province, not Guangzhou Province, in first item, and adds dropped word 'project' in second item)
BEIJING/SHANGHAI, April 11 (Reuters) - Chinese newspapers available in Beijing and Shanghai carried the following stories on Friday. Reuters has not checked the stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
FINANCIAL NEWS
-- Chinese insurers paid 3.7 billion yuan ($529 million) in total for storm disasters in January and February but the funds covered only a small portion of the damage, China Insurance Regulatory Commission Chairman Wu Dingfu said.
-- The Agricultural Bank of China has set up a management function as part of its transformation into a flat-structured, "process-based" lender.
-- The People's Bank of China's Lanzhou branch issued a notice requiring lenders to enhance security after Tibetan riots in the southern part of Gansu province.
-- China's insurance watchdog will start a six-month nationwide inspection of property insurance businesses to identify and address irregularities in the sector.
CHINA DAILY (www.chinadaily.com.cn)
-- General Electric (GE.N) said Xiamen-based Topstar, a Chinese light bulb manufacturer in which GE has a minority interest, neither violated China's labour laws nor endangered workers' health in its production process. The comments were in response to a Policy Matters Ohio report that said Topstar subjected many employees to 64-hour working weeks and toxic mercury used in production.
-- Up to 1,000 Chinese families will host foreign visitors to Beijing this summer as part of an Olympic Homestay programme, the city's tourism bureau said.
-- Crime in Guangzhou fell 14 percent in the first quarter compared with the same period of last year, with robberies falling 32 percent and purse-snatchings down 26 percent, the local police department said.
-- The population of the Tibet autonomous region was 2.84 million at the end of 2007, up 30,000 from 2006, a government report said.
PEOPLE'S DAILY
-- A total of 201 countries and international organisations have confirmed participation in the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.
-- Communist party organs are expanding in private associations, schools and societies in Wenzhou, China's private economy base.
-- China's former President Jiang Zemin attended the funeral of Wu Xueqian, a veteran Chinese diplomat and former vice-premier.
CHINA SECURITIES JOURNAL
-- Chinese securities brokerages received commissions of about 35 billion yuan in the first quarter, the China Securities Journal estimated, based on trade volume statistics.
-- China's stainless steel industry, the world's largest, will see a slowdown in earnings growth this year amid an oversupply in the industry, industry experts said.
SHANGHAI SECURITIES NEWS
-- India's Tata Motors Ltd (TAMO.BO), which unveiled the world's cheapest new car in January, the Nano, is planning to target the China market with a similar design.
-- China Haisheng Juice Holdings Co Ltd (0359.HK) said its 2007 net profit rose 146 percent to 161 million yuan, but its gross margin fell to 29.2 percent from 33.1 percent as the cost of apples, its main raw material, rose.
SECURITIES TIMES
-- Konka Group Co Ltd (000016.SZ) said it had met with LG Display Co Ltd (034220.KS) (LPL.N) to discuss buying a stake in the Korean firm's LCD factory in southern China's Guangzhou city, in Guangdong Province, but contrary to media reports had not signed an agreement and that any stake it bought would be under 5 percent.
-- Major Chinese TV and appliance maker Hisense Electric Co Ltd (600060.SS) has started construction of the second phase of its liquid crystal display production project, which is expected to raise the firm's annual capacity to 1.5 million units.
CHINA BUSINESS NEWS
-- Shanda Interactive Entertainment's (SNDA.O) previous President Tang Jun has joined privately run company Newhuadu Industrial Group Co Ltd, in southern China's Fujian Province, according to unnamed sources.
-- Chinese truck maker Beiqi Foton Motor Co Ltd (600166.SS) is planning to build a production line with capacity of 300,000 vehicles within one to two years in China's southern Guangdong province.
SHANGHAI DAILY
-- Taobao, Alibaba Group's online consumer auction firm, is expected to see its transaction volume surpass 100 billion yuan this year, after it hit 18.8 billion yuan in the first three months, up 170 percent from a year earlier. ($1=6.991 Yuan) (Compiled by Beijing and Shanghai Newsrooms; Editing by Edmund Klamann)
