Bond sale

China Yangtze Power yesterday announced details of its proposed issue of 40 million bonds at 100 yuan apiece, raising a total of 4 billion yuan. The proposed bonds are to be sold in lots of 10 units each. The preliminary coupon rate is set between 5.05 and 5.35 percent, which is lower than market expectations. Bidding by institutional investors for the bonds, which ends today, will determine the actual coupon rate.

Subscribers drop

China Telecom Corp, the country's biggest fixed-line telephone company, reported its first decline in subscribers after users opted to sign wireless carrier China Mobile Ltd. Users fell by about 380,000 to 224.17 million at the end of August from a month earlier, the Beijing-based company said yesterday. China Mobile, the world's biggest wireless carrier by users, added 5.59 million subscribers in August for a total of 343.6 million, it said in a release.

Coal prices up

The National Development and Reform Commission said yesterday that China's coal prices increased across most of its markets in August. By the end of last month, prices had generally risen by about 10-15 yuan per ton over the previous month. The commission said on its website that rising demand from electricity generation and household use was behind the price rises.

Airport hotel

Beijing Capital International Airport yesterday signed a management contract with Hong Kong-based Langham Hotels International over the operation of a newly established five-star hotel in the airport.

Located in a new terminal at the Beijing airport, the hotel is scheduled to open in the middle of next year. It is likely to be the first five-star hotel at a Chinese airport.

Equity funds gain

China's open-ended fund categories all recorded gains in August, according to the latest Lipper fund market report. Accumulated return on China's equity funds in the last 12 months reached 253.17 percent, it said. Meanwhile, Yinhua Fund Management Co Ltd said yesterday that all five equity funds under its management recorded an average return of 120 percent in the past nine months.

Hi-tech fair

A US section will make its debut at the Ninth China Hi-tech Fair, which will be held in Shenzhen between October 12 and 17. It is the first time the fair has included a section for an individual country. The move marks China's efforts to improve its hi-tech imports from the United States and to narrow its growing trade gap with the country, according to Vice-Minister of Commerce Wei Jianguo. Over 20 US hi-tech firms will show their technologies and products at the fair.

Investment month

More than 70 project agreements are expected to be signed in Xishan district of Wuxi, East China's Jiangsu Province, during its Golden Autumn Investment Promotion Month, which runs until the end of September.

Hundreds of businesspeople from Europe, the United States, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong are expected to seek business opportunities in the booming southern city during the promotion.

Pest control

Leading pest control firm Beijing Taiming has kicked off a start-up program for investors in cooperation with the China Beijing Equity Exchange. Investors are encouraged to join the program and cash in on China's potentially vast pest control market.

The global pest control market reached $14 billion in 2006, but it's still developing in China.

Agencies-China Daily

(China Daily 09/21/2007 page14)