IN BRIEF (Page 13)

Hotel company's shares plummet

Shares of NH Hoteles SA, the largest business hotel chain in Spain, fell the most they had fallen in more than 15 years in Madrid trading after China's HNA Group canceled an agreement to buy them.

HNA cited a "volatile and uncertain" financial environment in canceling the transaction and will pay $15 million in compensation, the Madrid-based NH Hoteles said in a filing on Wednesday. The Chinese company had planned to take a 20 percent stake.

Shares of NH Hoteles dropped as much as 19 percent, the sharpest intraday decline since June 1996, and were down 18 percent, to 2.32 euros ($3), by 10:31 am in Madrid.

Wind-power firm to cut IPO value

Guodian Technology & Environment Group Corp, a Chinese maker of wind-power equipment, plans to cut the value of its Hong Kong initial public offering in half to about $300 million, said two people familiar with the matter.

The Beijing-based unit of China Guodian Corp, which originally offered 2.08 billion shares, plans to sell 1.09 billion of its shares, said the people, who asked not to be identified. Guodian Technology had sought as much as HK$5 billion ($643 million) by offering shares at HK$2.16 to HK$2.42 each.

State company draws US bid

The US-based asset manager DE Shaw & Co LP is in talks to buy up to 20 percent of China's State-controlled investment company TEDA International Holding (Group) Co for from $500 million to $600 million, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

DE Shaw's planned investment in TEDA International is a precursor to the Chinese company's plan to hold an initial public offering, the source added.

The pricing of the deal and the stake are subject to final negotiations, the source said.

Chinese sedan to be sold in UK

Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co plans to start selling a Chinese-produced sedan in the United Kingdom by the end of next year.

Through a local wholesaler, the Chinese auto maker said it plans to offer UK drivers the Emgrand EC7, a midsize sedan. Buyers will initially have the option to get one either with a 1.5-liter or a 1.8-liter gasoline engine. The car is expected to retail for 10,000, or about $15,600.

HP to introduce data processor

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corp, the largest PC maker in the world measured by its market share, announced in Beijing on Wednesday that it would introduce a new information platform IDOL 10 to help process the massive amount of online data that exists.

The US-based company said only 15 percent of online data can be processed by computers. The other 85 percent, including video, audio, e-mails, texts, documents, images and mobile communications, are unstructured data.

China Daily - Agencies

(China Daily 12/15/2011 page13)