Hong Kong banks may start offering yuan promissory notes early next year, making it easier for investors to buy initial public offerings (IPO) denominated in the Chinese currency.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) is working on technical support for yuan promissory notes and the instruments are expected to be introduced in mid-February, said an HKMA spokeswoman who declined to be identified.
Investors in Hong Kong may soon have the chance to buy into an IPO denominated in yuan, as the territory grows as an offshore center for trading in the Chinese currency. Billionaire Li Ka-shing (李嘉誠) plans what may be the first such sale early next year, seeking more than 10 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion) for a real estate investment trust backed by the Oriental Plaza development in Beijing, a person with knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday.
Computershare Hong Kong Investor Services Ltd, a share registry company, is working with “some market partners” on an online system for purchasing yuan-denominated shares, managing director Pamela Chung said in a phone interview yesterday. She didn’t identify the partners.
“Details of the new system will be announced after March 2011,” she said.
The HKMA has expressed concerns to the People’s Bank of China about having only one bank, BOC Hong Kong (Holdings) Ltd (中銀香港(控股)), able to clear yuan in Hong Kong, Radio Television Hong Kong reported yesterday.
The HKMA official confirmed the report, which cited the de facto central bank’s deputy chief executive, Arthur Yuen (阮國恒).
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last