Great Wall delays IPO

Great Wall Motor Co, China's largest sport utility vehicle maker, has postponed its A-share listing till later this year partly due to concern over a slumping mainland stock market, a source said yesterday.

Great Wall, which in October 2007 announced a plan to issue up 121.7 million A-shares in Shanghai, has now decided to delay its internal IPO target to September from May, said the source, who is familiar with the situation.

The source attributed the delay to China's benchmark index that is now nearly 50 percent below last October's record peak after a six-fold jump in a two-year bull run. But Great Wall won't cut the size of the share sale, valued at up to HK$1.08 billion based on its H-share price yesterday morning, the source added.

$300m bond sale

Nine Dragons (Holdings) Ltd sold $300 million in five-year bonds at a yield of 8 percent, matching guidance provided earlier this week, according to a term sheet.

China's largest paper board producer sold the bonds on Tuesday at a spread of 505.2 basis points over US Treasuries, within the guidance of around 500 basis points in an earlier term sheet.

Nine Dragons holds a "BBB-minus" rating, the lowest investment-grade level, from both Standard and Poor's Ratings Services and Fitch Ratings.

The firm will add 100 basis points to the coupon of 7.875 percent should it be downgraded by either of the ratings services, and a total of 200 basis points should it be downgraded below "BB", or two notches below "BBB-minus".

$2.9b Congo mining project

China Railway Group plans to set up a joint venture to invest in a $2.9 billion copper and cobalt mining project in Democratic Republic of Congo.

China Railway Group will be responsible for providing loans and other financing amounting to $1.83 billion, including $550 million in zero-interest loans, for the project, it said in a filing with the Shanghai stock exchange yesterday .

The company also plans to fund more than 40 percent of the first phrase of infrastructure construction related to the project, which is estimated to cost up to $3 billion.

The investment requires approval from authorities in China and Congo, it said. China Railway would own 43 percent and Sinohydro Corp 25 percent of the joint venture, Sino-Congo Mining SARL or Socomin, which will have a registered capital of $100 million.

Hong Kong dollar firmer

The Hong Kong dollar was marginally firmer against the US dollar yesterday.

The local currency rose as high as 7.7930 per dollar early in the afternoon before easing back to 7.7950/53 at 0900 GMT, still sligthly higher than in late Tuesday trade in Asia.

One dealer said there was selling interest in the US dollar from a big UK bank earlier in the day, while there had been US dollar demand from investment banks and mainland banks in recent sessions. The USD/HKD spot rate was likely to hover in a range between 7.7930 and 7.7970 in the near term, the dealer said.

Catching wind-power wave

China High Speed Transmission Equipment Group Co Ltd, the country's top maker of gears for wind-power transmission, plans to nearly quadruple capacity over the next two years to feed a robust global appetite for renewable energy as oil prices skyrocket.

China High, which vies with Belgium-based Hansen Transmissions International and the business Siemens inherited when it bought Flender, aims to become one of the top three wind-gear equipment makers globally and will get half its revenue from abroad in a few years, Deputy General Manager Liao Enrong told Reuters in an interview yesterday.

Reuters

(HK Edition 04/24/2008 page2)