HK yuan liquidity to expand by 2015

Yuan deposits will likely expand to 30 percent of city's total savings by 2015, from the current 9 percent, Donna Kwok, HSBC economist writes in report.

Yuan liquidity will approach 1 trillion yuan by end-2012, she estimates.

Hong Kong's yuan deposits were 557.7b yuan in June, according to data from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong's official foreign currency reserve assets stood at $296.2 billion at the end of July, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority said on Tuesday, up 0.41 percent from $295.0 billion at the end of June.

China Longyuan July power up

China Longyuan Power Group Corp Ltd, the largest wind power developer in China, said it generated 2.14 million MWh of electricity in July, up 14.71 percent from a year ago.

During the period, power generated by coal-power plants declined 8.05 percent compared with a year ago, while power generated by wind rose 38.85 percent and power generated by other renewable energy jumped 504 percent.

Total power generated year-to-date was up by 10.9 percent year-on-year.

In a separate development, China Petrochemical Corp's overseas equity oil and gas output in the first half of the year rises 24 percent year-on-year, or by 2.53 million metric tons of oil equivalent, the official Xinhua News Agency reports.

Minsheng wins nod for rural bank

China Minsheng Banking Corporation has won an approval from the China Banking Regulatory Commission to set up a rural bank in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang, according to a statement posted to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The rural bank will have registered capital of 60m yuan, it said.

TCL multimedia July sales up

TCL Multimedia Technology Holdings Ltd said it sold 34.7 percent more LCD TV sets in July compared with a year ago.

During the month, its LCD TV sales volume in China surged 51.4 percent while that in overseas market rose 16.9 percent, the TV maker said in an emailed statement.

The company sold 1.41 million sets of AV products in July, down 9.6 percent year on year.

Melco's sales fall 2.2% in Q2

Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd, a venture between billionaire James Packer and a son of gambling tycoon Stanley Ho, reported a 2.2 percent drop in second-quarter sales as gamblers cut spending amid a slower mainland economy.

Revenue dropped to $938.5 million from $960 million a year earlier, while net income rose 23 percent to $82.3 million from $66.7 million, according to the U.S. GAAP standard. Adjusted EBITDA fell 5.8 percent to $203.8 million. Earnings per American depositary share rose to 15 cents from 13 cents.

"The decline in net revenue was primarily attributable to lower group-wide rolling chip volumes, partially offset by strong improvements in the mass market table games and gaming machine segments," Melco Crown said in a statement on Tuesday.

Melco Crown has been hurt by weaker spending by high-stake gamblers in Macao, especially in its Altira property on the Cotai Strip, said Gabriel Chan, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Credit Suisse ahead of the earnings announcement.

Separately, Bao Yuan (Holdings) Ltd said it expects a loss in the first half of the year because of a decline in garment business sales and expenses for new business development, according to a statement from the company to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Bloomberg - Reuters

(HK Edition 08/08/2012 page2)