ZTE, Huawei to win Ethiopian bid

Ethiopia's government will sign a two-year contract with Huawei Technologies Co and ZTE Corp within weeks, Communication and Information Technology Minister Debretsion Gebremichael said.

ZTE, China's second-largest maker of phone equipment, said in May it was bidding with Huawei for a $1.3 billion government telecommunications contract.

ZTE, about one-third owned by the Chinese government, has worked with Ethiopia's state-owned monopoly provider Ethio Telecom over the past six years to upgrade phone and Internet services in Africa's second-most populous nation.

The companies will finance the project that includes more than doubling the number of mobile-phone users to 40 million by mid-2015, Debretsion said.

China's Li Ning says CFO to quit

China's best-known local sportswear group, Li Ning Co Ltd, said its chief financial officer has resigned, the latest deparure from senior management as the company grapples with a slowdown in the world's second-largest economy.

Li Ning, backed by Singapore sovereign fund GIC and U.S. private equity fund TPG Capital, said CFO Chong Yik Kay will step down from Nov 1, but will remain an adviser to the company.

The news comes three months after the company, whose share price has dropped by more than half since March, named Olympic gymnast Li Ning and TPG managing director Kim Jin-Goon to lead the company after then-CEO Zhang Zhiyong quit.

Li Ning, which competes with the local Anta Sports brand as well as Adidas and Nike, is in talks with potential candidates to fill the post, it said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

CKH hotel unit eyes $800m IPO

Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing's property firm Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd plans to list its extended stay hotel business in a deal that could raise up to $800 million, IFR reported on Friday, citing sources with knowledge of the plans.

The offer would be only the second by an investment trust in Hong Kong, which competes for listings with Singapore where business trust IPOs are common. The deal is slated to take place before the end of the year, added IFR, a Thomson Reuters publication.

Initial public offerings (IPOs) in Hong Kong have plunged more than 80 percent in 2012 from 2011, with investors ignoring new issues after being burnt by the poor performance of several large listings last year.

The proposed deal would be similar to a real estate investment trust (REIT), offering investors fixed returns through annual yield payments.

Stocks climb as mainland banks up

Hong Kong stocks rose, with the benchmark index capping its longest weekly streak of gains since February, after US jobless claims fell and as mainland lenders extended Thursday's advance.

China Construction Bank Corp rose 1.8 percent, extending gains after state-run Central Huijin Investment Ltd said it will continue supporting banking shares after increasing stakes in the nation's lenders. Aluminum Corp of China, the nation's leading supplier of the metal, gained 4.4 percent after commodity prices rose.

The Hang Seng Index climbed 0.7 percent to 21136.43 at the close.

The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index of mainland companies, also known as the H-share index, rose 1.1 percent to 10345.28.

Futures on the Hang Seng Index advanced 0.6 percent to 21096. The HSI Volatility Index was unchanged from Thursday at 16.46, indicating traders expect a swing of 4.7 percent for the equity benchmark in the next 30 days.

Bloomberg-Reuters

(HK Edition 10/13/2012 page2)