CHEUNG Kong (Holdings) Ltd shareholders are seeking HK$4.71 billion (US$604 million) from selling stock in Hong Kong's second-biggest developer after the shares jumped 31 percent in the past six months.
Some 33.5 million shares are being offered at HK$140.50 apiece, according to an e-mail from UBS AG, the sale's arranger. The sellers of the 1.4 percent stake in the company controlled by billionaire Li Ka-shing weren't disclosed. The price is 3.8 percent lower than Wednesday's close.
Li, the richest man living in Asia with a US$23 billion fortune according to Forbes magazine, said on January 4 the global economy faces "greater turbulence" this year because of losses from subprime mortgages in the United States and measures to tighten China's economy. Cheung Kong has lagged behind some rivals, including Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd's 72 percent surge in the past six months.
"The stock has gone up a lot, so it is probably just profit taking," said Sylvia Wong, an analyst at UOB-Kay Hian Ltd in Hong Kong, who rates Cheung Kong shares a "hold." "Hong Kong property stocks are not cheap, and their valuations reflect quite a bullish scenario."
Cheung Kong fell 2.8 percent to HK$141.9, compared with a 0.9 percent fall in the benchmark Hang Seng Index.
Property prices may rise 45 percent in Hong Kong before the end of 2009, UOB-Kay Hian estimates.
"Mr Li expressed his views last week, and the company hasn't changed from those," Cheung Kong spokeswoman Wendy Tong Barnes told Bloomberg News by phone yesterday.
Hong Kong's property market will be "very good" because of the city's inflationary environment, Li told reporters on January 4, according to Barnes.
Shanghai Real Estate market
Shanghai (Chinese: 上海; Pinyin: Shànghǎi; Shanghainese: /zɑ̃'he/; abbreviation: 沪; nickname: 申), situated on the banks of the Yangtze River Delta in East China, is the largest city of the People's Republic of China and the eighth largest in the world.[4] Widely regarded as the citadel of China's modern economy, the city also serves as one of the nation's most important cultural, commercial, financial, industrial and communications centers. Administratively, Shanghai is a municipality of the People's Republic of China that has province-level status. Shanghai is also one of the world's busiest ports, and became the largest cargo port in the world in 2005.
Originally a fishing town, Shanghai became China's most important city by the twentieth century and was the center of popular culture, intellectual discourse and political intrigue during the Republic of China era. After the communist takeover in 1949, Shanghai languished due to heavy central government taxation and cessation of foreign investment, and had many of its supposedly "bourgeois" elements purged. Following the central government's authorization of market-economic redevelopment of Shanghai in 1992, Shanghai has now surpassed early-starters Shenzhen and Guangzhou, and has since led China's economic growth. Some challenges remain for Shanghai at the beginning of the 21st century, as the city struggles to cope with increased worker migration, a huge wealth gap, and environmental degradation. Despite these challenges, Shanghai's skyscrapers and modern lifestyle are often seen as representing China's recent economic development.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Owners of HK firm seek shares disposal
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