GE halts buying in China

A private equity unit of General Electric (GE) said yesterday that it will focus on its existing investment portfolio in China rather than investing in new projects over the coming years amid poor market conditions.

Zhu Wenqian, head of private equity and business development, Greater China at GE Commercial Finance, said asset managers and investors would have to prepare for "a sustained war" before the markets start to recover.

"Over the next two to three years, I can't see good opportunities (for companies) to go listing, so the most important thing to do at present is cash management," she said during a panel discussion at an industry forum.

GE Commercial Finance, with assets of over $335 billion globally, is a unit of GE Capital, the flagship investment arm of General Electric. In China, GE Capital invests in companies directly, and it is also a limited partner of CITIC Capital, an investment arm of China's top financial conglomerate CITIC Group.

OLP to get more sales

Greece's Piraeus Port said yesterday it will receive more than a fifth of its revenue from a new cargo-handling company to be run by China's Cosco, worth an estimated 3 billion euros over 35 years.

OLP, which approved late on Wednesday the terms of a deal for Cosco to upgrade and run cargo port facilities for up to 35 years, said rental costs will push the guaranteed amount of the transaction to 3.4 billion euros.

"OLP will receive 21 percent of the new company's revenue for the first eight years and about 25 percent in the following years," the company said in a statement.

OLP, which expects to make a loss this year due to labor action by dock workers, has said the deal will return it to profit once Cosco enters Piraeus in 2009. Cosco is expected to pay OLP an initial 50 million euros in 2008.

Reuters

(HK Edition 10/17/2008 page2)