But many of them find it too costly and this prompted the decision to offer the service, said Mr Seng.

The company now has two H-share companies in its portfolio.

'The contracts we have with our clients are all for three years since this is what the regulations required before they can go on their own,' Mr Seng said. 'But given the number of mainland companies expected to seek listing in Hong Kong in the near future there are still enormous opportunities in this field.'

The company was formed in 2000 through the acquisition of the Hong Kong corporate service businesses of three of the Big Four international accounting firms, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Kelvin Wong

icbc disciplines 368 staff over irregularitiesThe mainland's largest commercial bank has disciplined 368 employees after a state audit last year found 30 cases of irregularities involving 6.9 billion yuan.

Among those, 42 employees were sacked and 18 officials lost their titles, the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) wrote in a report to the National Audit Office.

Another 81 people were handed demerits.

The audit office, in a report that was dated Monday, said only 336 of the employees held responsible were 'seriously disciplined' in the wake of investigations into the 2002 accounts and operations of 21 ICBC branches.

The problems uncovered through the audit included the illegal cashing and discounting of bills backed by forged contracts and value-added tax receipts.

In addition, construction-related lending was in breach of mainland regulations barring local governments from directly borrowing and guaranteeing such loans in the sector.

The National Audit Office also found a Shanghai branch of ICBC to have extended 71.4 million yuan to finance one speculator's acquisition of 128 flats.

The bank was further accused of lax lending to privately-owned companies which used were allowed to use connected firms to guarantee bank loans. Bei Hu

talks start for movie theme park project

State-owned film producer Western Movie Group yesterday said it was in talks with Cheung Kong (Holdings), K. Wah International and Kowloon Development on a movie theme park project that will involve investment of about four billion yuan, which includes four million yuan from the Shanxi government.

The company said the 725- hectare project, Han & Tang Dynasties Pearl Film Theme Park, would be developed in Lantian county, 22km from Xian, and was expected to open in 2008. The park will include facilities for film production, tourism, cultural events and exhibitions. Ernest Kong

HUTCHison's indian SPIN-off approved

Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd said last night that the Indian government's Foreign Investment Promotion Board had approved its Indian mobile arm Hutchison Max Telecom Private's plan to consolidate with the Hutchison Essar Telecom Group of companies.

The consolidation application, first announced in June, is the first step to list the combined entity on the Mumbai stock exchange, expected to be next year.

The subsidiaries, including Hutchison Essar Telecom, Hutchison Telecom East and Fascel, had 6.4 million subscribers in September. Georgina Lee