Wing Lung deal deadline

China Merchants Bank, which in June agreed to pay $4.66 billion for Hong Kong lender Wing Lung Bank, said yesterday it has extended a deadline for fulfilling the conditions of the deal by about six weeks.

The bank said it had extended a deadline for fully satisfying conditions of the acquisition to Oct 27 from Sept 14. The bank did not say which conditions it was unlikely to fulfill on time, but said it does not expect to face any difficulty in meeting the conditions by the extended deadline.

IT Holding talks denied

China's Hembly International Holdings Ltd denied a newspaper report yesterday which said it was in talks with Italy's IT Holding SpA to take a possible stake in IT's parent company.

Mary Ng, corporate communications manager of Hembly International, denied the report in Italy's MF newspaper.

"Hembly as a group ... is not in talks" to buy stakes in IT Holding or its parent PA Investments, she said.

Shipbuilder eyes HK IPO

Domestic shipbuilder Yang Fan Group, in which Goldman Sachs holds a 20 percent stake, is eying a stock market listing in Hong Kong in the first half of next year, Chairman Xu Yukang told Reuters.

The group, which has registered capital of 500 million yuan, is China's eighth-largest shipbuilder.

The company aims to become one of China's top 500 enterprises within three years.

HK dollar ends softer

The Hong Kong dollar gave up early gains to trade slightly lower on Thursday afternoon as the US dollar gained ground on the global market. Sentiment was also affected by a sharp drop in the city's stock market.

The local currency was trading at 7.7996/97 against the US dollar at 0857 GMT, slightly softer than late Wednesday trade in Asia. It had touched a morning high of 7.7978 amid corporate demand for funds.

The US dollar index, which gauges its performance against a basket of major currencies, rose to as high as 80.352.

Reuters

(HK Edition 09/12/2008 page2)