CLP says 10% of power produced by cleaner energy

CLP Holdings Ltd, Hong Kong's biggest electricity supplier, said about 10 percent of its generation now comes from cleaner forms of energy, including nuclear power.

The utility, which also runs power plants in the mainland, Australia, India, Vietnam and Taiwan, wants 20 percent of its capacity to be generated without the use of fossil fuels by 2020, Chief Executive Officer Andrew Brandler said in an interview on Bloomberg TV yesterday.

CLP won government approval in August to build what may be Asia's biggest offshore wind farm off eastern Hong Kong. The project may cost HK$7 billion ($903 million) and produce 1 percent of the city's electricity, the company said.

Rusal racing clock for listing in Hong Kong, FT Reports

Oleg Deripaska, the Russian billionaire, is in the last stages of negotiating a restructuring agreement with creditors owed $7.3 billion, an accord required for an initial public offering of his United Co Rusal in Paris and Hong Kong, the Financial Times reported.

If a deal is reached before a November 19 hearing deadline at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Deripaska must still scramble to gain creditor committee approval from more than 70 banks before the end of this month, the newspaper said, and then try to market the sale to investors in the weeks before the Christmas break begins at about mid-December, the FT said.

HK forex reserves at $240.1b at end-October

Hong Kong's official foreign currency reserve assets stood at $240.1 billion at the end of October, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority said yesterday, up 5.8 percent from $226.9 billion at the end of September.

Hong Kong, whose currency is linked to the US dollar, ranks as the world's seventh-largest holder of foreign currency reserves after the mainland, Japan, Russia, Taiwan, India and Korea.

HKMA injected HK$6.975 billion (US$900 million) into the money market in New York trading on Friday to stem an appreciating Hong Kong dollar.

Phoenix unit to sell $25 million of preferred shares

Phoenix Satellite Television Holdings Ltd, the broadcaster part owned by China Mobile Communications Corp and News Corp, said a unit will sell $25 million of stock to Intel Corp and Bertelsmann AG to fund acquisitions.

The unit, Phoenix New Media Ltd, will use funds from the share sale to buy companies providing Internet content and value-added telecommunications services, according to a Hong Kong stock exchange filing yesterday. Units of Intel and Bertelsmann will buy preferred shares in Phoenix New Media, it said.

The TV operator's shares rose 4.4 percent to HK$1.88 in Hong Kong trading yesterday.

Shanghai Disney Park won't hurt HK tourism

Walt Disney Co's planned Shanghai theme park won't hurt Hong Kong's tourism industry, the city's Chief Executive Donald Tsang was quoted by Radio Television Hong Kong as saying.

China is large enough to accommodate two Disney parks, he was quoted as saying in a Chinese-language report posted on RTHK's website.

Hong Kong Disneyland mainly attracts tourists from the city and Pearl River Delta region in southern China, Tsang said. Hong Kong is confident that Disney wouldn't allow the Shanghai park to take business away from its Hong Kong counterpart, he added.

China Daily/Agencies

(HK Edition 11/10/2009 page3)