Briefs, February 21, 2013

China's three mobile-phone operators posted a 0.9 per cent month-to-month increase in the number of mobile subscribers to 1.12 billion, still the largest of any country in the world, last month. China Mobile grew its subscriber pool 0.62 per cent from December to 714.7 million; the number of China Unicom's users rose 1.51 per cent to 242.9 million; and China Telecom gained 1.59 per cent more subscribers, for a total of 163.2 million. Sophie Yu

Property-to-hospitality conglomerate Guoco Group - the parent of which, Malaysia's Hong Leong Group, has offered to privatise the firm - posted an unaudited net profit of HK$3.35 billion for last year's second half, turning around from a loss of HK$2.56 billion in the same period a year earlier. Guoco made gains of HK$2.74 billion trading financial assets, but suffered trading losses of HK$3.57 billion in the second half of 2011. Eric Ng