Passenger and air traffic movements both set new monthly records for a second month in August, according to the Hong Kong International Airport. Boosted by burgeoning demand during the summer holiday period, passenger volume reached 5.2 million, up 3.9 per cent year on year. Flight movements hit a record 30,470, a rise of 5.2 per cent from last year, and more growth is expected. For the first eight months of the year, the airport handled 37.9 million passengers and processed 2.6 million tonnes of cargo, representing growth of 5.6 per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively from a year earlier. Sophie Yu
China Resources and Transportation, which operates a toll expressway in Inner Mongolia, has sold its 55 per cent stake in its wholly owned subsidiary, Yichang Xinshougang Property Development, to an independent third party for HK$550 million. The company said yesterday that it had disposed of the non-core asset to focus on its toll expressway business. Sophie Yu
Alliance Boots, the owner of Europe's largest pharmacy chain, will buy a 12 per cent stake in China's Nanjing Pharmaceutical for about £56 million (HK$704 million). The deal, initially announced more than a year ago, would strengthen Alliance Boots' ties with China's government and regulators, Alliance Boots executive chairman Stefano Pessina said yesterday. Reuters