■FINANCE
BoComm mulls offering
China’s Bank of Communications (BoComm, 交通銀行) may try to raise US$4 billion through a rights offering to strengthen its balance sheet, a report said yesterday. A massive lending boom by Chinese banks has left many of them with a reduced capital base. BoComm, one of China’s biggest lenders, has asked investment banks to submit proposals for the offering in Shanghai or Hong Kong, where the bank is already listed, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter. A rights offering typically allows shareholders to buy additional company stock at a discounted price during a set period of time.
■HONG KONG
Unemployment holds steady
Hong Kong’s jobless rate stayed at an 11-month low and Secretary for Labor and Welfare Matthew Cheung (張建宗) said unemployment is set “to ease further.” The seasonally adjusted rate for the three months ended Jan. 31 was unchanged at 4.9 percent, the government said yesterday on its Web site. Unemployment peaked last year at 5.4 percent. Hong Kong’s economy expanded for the six months through Sept. 30 after a yearlong recession. The government is due to announce fourth-quarter economic data with its budget on Wednesday.
■INTERNET
‘WSJ’ reports cyberattacks
Coordinated cyberattacks launched from Europe and China breached computers at firms and government agencies worldwide in the past 18 months, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Wednesday. The Journal quoted computer security firm NetWitness as saying the attacks made mountains of data vulnerable to mining by hackers, although the damage had yet to be fully assessed. Information bared to hackers ranged from credit card transactions to intellectual property of slightly more than 2,400 victims, including 10 US government agencies, the Journal said. The hacking operation began in late 2008 in Germany and has yet to be stopped, NetWitness said.
■METALS
IMF ready to sell gold
The IMF said on Wednesday it was ready to sell 191.3 tonnes of gold on the market in a bid to reduce its dependence on lending revenue. At Wednesday’s market price of about US$1,120 an ounce, the gold to be sold would be worth nearly US$6.9 billion. The fund “will shortly initiate the on-market phase of its gold sales program” of a total 403.3 tonnes approved for sale last September, the Washington-based institution said in a statement. The initial phase was set aside exclusively for off-market sales to public entities, such as central banks, among the IMF’s 186 members.
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