HSBC sees room to cut Hong Kong prime rates

HSBC said yesterday it saw room to cut Hong Kong prime lending rates now that interbank rates have fallen.

"We have to wait and see what happens. HIBOR has come down, there may be some room (to cut rates)," Sandy Flockhart, CEO of HSBC Asia-Pacific, said.

Hong Kong's currency peg with the US dollar forces the territory to officially track US rate moves but local banks have some leeway to lag US rate moves and have ignored most recent cuts in the US federal funds rate.

China Merchants slows growth, expansion

China Merchants Holdings plans to curtail its pace of expansion because of expectations that sputtering global shipping will retard the pace of growth in its key southern Chinese market in 2009. Chairman Fu Yuning told reporters yesterday his firm, which derives 70 percent of its revenue from ports in the country's south, planned to curb expansion plans amid expectations of slowing throughput growth at key terminals in Hong Kong and Shenzhen. But Fu would not identify areas in which to trim expansion.

Harvest plans new China fund, expects deals soon

Harvest Capital Partners, a property investment firm backed by State conglomerate China Resources Group, aims to raise a new fund next year as its two existing property funds totalling $1 billion are fully invested.

The firm, headquartered in Hong Kong and mainly funded by investors from the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan, also intends to pick one or two projects offloaded by foreign real estate private equity funds in China in the very near future.

Sony layoffs could portend wave of Asia tech job cuts

Massive job cuts at Sony Corp and a bleak outlook from Samsung Electronics mark what may be the beginning of a long winter for one of Asia's key sectors, with more bad news likely to follow in coming weeks. Sony became the region's highest profile technology company to announce major layoffs yesterday, saying it will slash 8,000 jobs and cut production to shave $1.1 billion in costs.

Reuters

(HK Edition 12/10/2008 page2)