Biz Scene: GRAPEVINE

Red chip listing

The Shanghai Stock Exchange expects to list its first red-chip shares, or shares of mainland companies incorporated outside the mainland and currently listed in Hong Kong, within six months, the South China Morning Post reported yesterday.

"The first red chips are likely to return to the A-share market in six months," the newspaper quoted an unidentified Shanghai exchange official as saying.

It added that the China Securities Regulatory Commission had already drafted a set of guidelines. China Mobile and CNOOC are among those likely to float A shares in Shanghai within six months, the paper said.

Telecom stake sold

Egypt's Orascom Telecom Holdings has sold about 95 million shares in Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd, cutting its stake in the company to 14.3 percent from 16.3 percent, Reuters reported yesterday, citing sources.

Orascom sold the shares at an average price of HK$10.7 each in its second sale of Hutchison Telecom shares in less than a month, the sources said.

Last month, Orascom sold $193 million worth of shares, or a 3 percent stake, in Hutchison Telecom, a unit of ports-to-telecoms conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa Ltd.

(China Daily 11/14/2007 page15)