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World Business Quick Take

■ Privatization
Yangtze Power IPO delayed
The long-awaited IPO of the Yangtze Electric Power Corp (YEPC), which was expected this fall has been delayed due to the gloomy domestic stock market, state press reported yesterday. The China Securities Regulatory Commission forced the corporation to postpone the stock issue because the market is already under strain from at least nine IPOs over the past month that absorbed a total of 8.67 billion yuan (US$1.04 billion), a Chinese-language newspaper reported. No time for the eventual listing was given. YEPC was set up in August last year and is controlled by the China Three Gorges Project Corporation (CTGPC) operator of the controversial Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric project located on the Yangtze river. The power corporation serves as a subsidiary to raise funds for the US$25 billion dam and its 26 generating units.

■ Tourism
Chinese holidays approach
Hong Kong's SARS-hit air traffic will get a boost from Chinese holidays in the first week of October, official figures showed yesterday. China's National Day falls on Oct. 1 and marks the start of a week-long holiday known as the Golden Week. The number of daily flights to and from Hong Kong International Airport, Asia's busiest, is expected to rise about 16 percent to 634 on Oct. 1, the Civil Aviation Department said in a statement. Eight airlines plan to run a total of 176 additional scheduled and ad-hoc charter flights to and from the territory during the period from Sept. 22 to Oct. 7, more than double the 72 additional flights of the year-earlier period. The airport now sees 545 daily flights on average, more than 90 percent of pre-SARS levels.

■ Corporate aid
Alstom deal in the works
Alstom SA's lenders, after meeting to review a new bailout plan for the French engineering company, said they can probably agree on funding before today's deadline and help avert bankruptcy, bankers said. The French government has until today to get the banks' final approval and submit a new financing plan after Competition Commissioner Mario Monti rejected an initial 7.1 billion-euro (US$8 billion) rescue package, saying it violated EU rules on state aid. The lenders, which include BNP Paribas SA, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase and Deutsche Bank AG, have about 17 billion euros in loans and contract guarantees at Alstom. At stake is a company with 110,000 employees and 21.4 billion euros in annual sales. Alstom is building the Queen Mary II, the world's largest cruise ship.

■ Airlines
Cathay facing legal action
Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd is facing a legal action by pilots for allegedly ignoring the implications of an April court ruling on its employment practices, the South China Morning Post said, citing the pilots' union. Pilot Murray Gardner won an order exempting him from changes that increased flying hours, reduced the number of pilots on long-haul flights and forbade pilots to swap flights, the newspaper said. The ruling applied only to Gardner, it said. The airline hadn't extended the effects of the ruling to other pilots who have the same employment contract as Gardner, the paper said, citing a document circulated to union members on Friday by union President Nigel Demery. The "vast majority" of the union's 1,000 members have instructed lawyers to start lawsuits similar to Gardner's, it said.

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