Biz Scene: GRAPEVINE
Pension fund investments
China may allow an additional 15 billion yuan of domestic corporate pension funds to be invested in the country's stock market this year, the Shanghai Securities News reported, without citing anyone.
The investment, or 20 percent of more than 70 billion yuan of outstanding corporate pensions, will be handled by qualified domestic fund management companies, the newspaper said.
China is introducing corporate pensions to expand coverage to more of its 1.3 billion population as the average age rises and the cost of funding retirement benefits increases.
HK to get yuan bonds
The China Export-Import Bank and China Development Bank are planning to sell the first yuan-denominated bonds in Hong Kong in the first half of the year, the South China Morning Post reported, citing unnamed sources.
HSBC Holdings Plc and Bank of China (Hong Kong) have been hired to arrange the sale, the report said.
The possible debt sale would mark the first such transaction in Hong Kong, after China's State Council in January gave approval for the country's financial institutions to sell yuan bonds in the city.
(China Daily 04/04/2007 page15)
