PCCW shares fall after bid probe said to begin

PCCW Ltd shares fell as much as 2.4 percent in Hong Kong trading after people familiar with the matter said police began probing Chairman Richard Li's failed bid last year to buy out the city's biggest phone company.

PCCW dropped 0.5 percent to close at HK$2.12, the lowest level since January 29.

Offices of at least one of Li's companies were searched on February 10, the people said. Police also searched the offices of Fortis Insurance Co (Asia), a Hong Kong insurer formerly controlled by Li's Pacific Century Regional Developments Ltd, the people said. "It would be inappropriate to comment on this matter," PCCW said in an e-mailed response to Bloomberg News yesterday. It didn't say whether its offices were visited by police.

Zhongsheng looking at up to $1 billion IPO

Zhongsheng yesterday started testing demand for a Hong Kong initial public offering that could raise as much as $1 billion, said three people with knowledge of the planned sale.

The Dalian, northeastern China-based company plans to start taking orders on March 3, said two of the people, who declined to be identified because the information is private. The share sale may fetch $600 million to $1 billion, the three people said.

RUSAL to increase aluminum output as demand rebounds

United Co RUSAL, the world's biggest aluminum producer, will increase output this year, having seen "the first signs of a recovery" after the global recession. The shares rose the most since their trading debut.

Production will increase 3 percent this year compared with 2009, the Moscow-based company said yesterday in a statement to the Hong Kong exchange. Output slumped 11 percent to 3.9 million metric tons last year.

RUSAL rose 6.9 percent to close at HK$8.02 at 4 pm in Hong Kong, after gaining as much as 11 percent. The increase is the biggest since the shares began trading on January 27.

Parkson slides on slowest profit growth in six years

Parkson Retail Group Ltd fell the most in eight months in Hong Kong trading, after the Beijing-based department-store chain posted the slowest profit growth in at least six years, missing analysts' estimates.

Net income rose 8.3 percent to 911 million yuan ($133 million), Parkson said in a statement to Hong Kong's stock exchange yesterday. Parkson shares fell 6 percent to HK$11.18, the most in more than eight months.

Same-store sales growth slowed after China's economy expanded at its slowest pace in almost a decade in the first half of last year, the retailer controlled by Malaysia's Lion Group said. Economic growth momentum on the mainland started to pick up in the third and fourth quarters, it said.

China Daily/Agencies

(HK Edition 02/23/2010 page2)