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World Business Briefs

■ REAL ESTATE
Hong Kong REIT debuts
The Hong Kong government's US$2.5 billion Link real estate investment trust -- the territory's first and the world's largest REIT -- made a strong debut on the stock exchange yesterday, with its shares gaining as much as 11 percent. Link REIT's shares rose as high as HK$11.45 (US$1.50), up from their initial public offering price of HK$10.30, before settling back to HK$11.25. The property trust, whose portfolio comprises shopping malls and car parks, was scheduled for launch late last year. But it was derailed due to a court challenge by a public housing pensioner, who sought to question the trust's legality. About 40 people protested outside the Hong Kong Stock Exchange yesterday, saying the listing would lead to higher rents at the shopping malls. They feared shopowners would pass on their higher costs to residents of public housing. Some 142 million shares change hands in the opening minutes in the session's most actively-traded share so far.

■ AVIATION
Asia-Pacific growth slows
Air traffic growth for Asia-Pacific airlines slowed last month, when they carried 10.9 million international passengers, up 3.6 percent from a year earlier, a regional industry group said yesterday. In September, passenger numbers had risen 5.8 percent and were up 6 percent for the first 10 months of the year, the Association of Asia-Pacific Airlines (AAPA) said in a statement. Asia-Pacific airlines filled 72.7 percent of available seats last month, down two percentage points from last year. "In October we saw slower growth in travel demand," said AAPA director-general Andrew Herdman. "The burden of high oil prices is clearly having an impact, both directly in terms of higher fuel bills, and indirectly in the form of slower global economic growth."

■ MEDIA
Murdoch bleak on US news
The US newspaper industry is under threat as classified advertising move onto the Internet and circulations continue to fall, the Financial Times said, citing News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch. "I don't know anybody under 30 who has ever looked at a classified advertisement in a newspaper," the FT cited Murdoch as saying in an interview with the UK Press Gazette trade magazine. Murdoch, who once described classified advertising as "rivers of gold," said sometimes "rivers dry up," the FT said. He attributed "overwritten, boring and elitist" newspaper editorial strategies for the financial problems of the industry in the US, the FT said. Moves in the UK to boost newspaper circulation by giving away free DVDs must stop, the FT cited Murdoch as saying.

■ AVIATION
Swire head stepping down
David Turnbull, chairman of the Swire Pacific Ltd conglomerate and its airline unit Cathay Pacific Ltd, is stepping down in January after just 11 months on the job, the company said. The outgoing executive will be succeeded by Christopher Pratt, currently chairman of Swire Pacific Offshore, Swire said in a statement Thursday. Pratt, who joined Swire 27 years ago, is also responsible for Swire Pacific's trading and industrial division. Turnbull, who has been with the group for nearly 30 years, is leaving "after careful consideration" to "resume a more active operational role," the statement said without elaborating on details of that role.

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