Stocks off 3-mth high, CCB down

Hong Kong stocks slipped 0.32 percent Monday as investors sold shares of mainland banks, such as CCB, after the country's top banking regulator ordered banks to take fresh steps to rein in risky lending to land developers. The benchmark Hang Seng Index pulled back from a three-month closing high to close 70.33 points lower at 22,138.17. The China Enterprise Index of top locally-listed mainland stocks was down 0.71 percent, to 12,953.45. China Construction Bank was the largest loser on the index, accounting for more than 24 points of the day's loss. The country's second-largest lender was down 1.6 percent at HK$6.75.

HK attracting Mongolian IPOs

Hong Kong is a natural choice for Mongolian enterprises to go public as the resources-rich country develops its vast untapped mineral wealth, the Mongolian prime minister Batbold said Monday in a joint event with Hong Kong's stock exchange. Mongolia is attracting attention from global investors after it sealed a deal in October with Ivanhoe Mines and Rio Tinto to develop the $3 billion Oyu Tolgoi mine, one of the world's biggest untapped copper and gold deposits. Batbold said the government would also press ahead with its initiative to privatize many of the country's assets and companies, including coal producers and power plants, with an eye toward creating "national champions". The landlocked country's firms are in need of foreign investment and expertise as they ramp up development, he said. Mongolia also plans to raise $1 billion-plus via a global bond sale in the fourth quarter this year to fund major development projects in areas such as mining and infrastructure.

Norilsk may pay dividend, help RUSAL cut debt

OAO GMK Norilsk Nickel may pay its first dividend in two years, allowing United Co RUSAL, which controls a third of the board of Russia's largest mining company, to pare debt, billionaire Oleg Deripaska said.

"Norilsk will show very good results this year," Deripaska, the chief executive officer of Moscow-based RUSAL, the world's largest aluminum producer, said in an interview in Hong Kong Monday. They "can well afford to pay good dividends to shareholders. We expect them very soon," he said.

Net income of the company was $821 million for the 12 months ended December 31, compared with a loss of $6 billion in 2008, RUSAL said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange. A $1 billion rise in the value of RUSAL's stake in Norilsk and an expected $400 million from its share of income in the world's largest nickel producer helped, the company said.

Galaxy gets $1.1 billion loan

Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd, the casino operator part-owned by Permira Advisers LLP, has received a six-year HK$8.8 billion ($1.13 billion) loan for the construction of a resort in Macao.

Galaxy got the secured club loan from seven banks including Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd and HSBC Holdings Plc, the company said in a statement to Hong Kong's stock exchange Monday. The facility will pay interest of 4.5 percentage points more than the Hong Kong Interbank Offer Rate.

The resort is scheduled to open in early 2011. The company is accelerating construction and may have a "soft opening" as soon as the end of this year, Chairman Lui Che Woo told reporters in Hong Kong. The facility "fully funds" the resort's development, Galaxy said.

Agencies - China Daily

(HK Edition 04/13/2010 page2)