THE third floor of phase six of Hongkong Industrial Building has been sub-divided into 13 units and is now up for sale. The property in Cheung Sha Wan is owned by Cheung Kong. At an average price of $1,800 a square foot, the sale will net more than $57.9 million if all the units are sold. However, not a single unit was sold on the first day of sale. - WAH KIU YAT PO A SOURCE in the property industry says a local investor recently paid $44.5 million for a property on Cameron Road. It is said the new owner intends to lease out the property. The shop has a construction area of 1,635 sq ft. Based on the selling price, theaverage price per square foot is $27,217. The source says that by leasing out the property, the return rate will be eight per cent. - EXPRESS NEWS ACCORDING to informed sources, senior level changes at China Resources, which have been brewing for a long time, will be settled soon. It is said that Ms Zhu Youlan, group deputy chairman and general manager, will leave her post at the end of next month toreturn to Beijing to take up a position there. Chairman Sun Jieren will be left at the helm of the group's Hongkong business. It is also expected that Mr Li Wenzhi, first deputy general manager, may be promoted to general manager. Sources in the securitiesindustry say that if the news is true, it will have a direct bearing on the future movement of the group's listed company. - SING TAO THE share price of Hongkong Land soared in the last few hours of trading under heavy buying from Barclays De Zoete Wedd (BZW). It is rumoured that BZW is planning to issue covered warrants on Hongkong Land. Even after Hongkong Land closed at $13.80, BZW was still requesting more shares at $13.90. - SING TAO THERE is suspicion over the motive behind Goldman Sachs discrediting Hongkong Telecommunications, which led to the stock's fall in New York and London. The motive seems to be personal as Goldman Sachs is one of the four competitors to underwrite Singapore Telecom, which is about to be listed. The rivals are First Boston, Shearson Lehman and Warburg. - SING TAO GOLDMAN Sachs may have an outside chance of winning the mandate to act as financial adviser for Qingdao Brewery's listing in Hongkong. More than 40 merchant bankers were rumoured to have sought the mandate, but only six were short-listed and they include Goldman Sachs and a finance firm under the Bank of China.- SING TAO THE Nanfung Group, which trades mainly in iron and steel, is understood to be applying to list on the Hongkong stock exchange next month. A source in the securities industry says Nanfung imports steel mainly from the CIS and sells it to Southeast Asia. Nanfung's major shareholders are two overseas Thai Chinese. One of them is the chairman of Thailand's largest iron and steel group. Standard Chartered will reportedly arrange the listing, which hopes to raise $200 million from the market. - SING TAO ONE example of how the slight thaw in relations between China and Britain has stimulated an improvement in the property markets of Guangzhou and Tianhe is the sale on the first day of all the units of a property project jointly developed by Hutchison Whampoa and Guangzhou Construction and Development Co. The price was $970 a square foot. - SING PAO MR Paul Tse Po-lau, executive direc UDL Holdings will sign an agreement with Hunan Province Ocean Going Corp, Muyang Transport Corp and Changsha Harbour Authority to form Xiangtai Shipping Corp, which will develop shipping routes from Hunan to northeast China. - HK ECONOMIC TIMES LUCKY Man has sold two 13-storey blocks at Fairmount Terrace in Repulse Bay to a third party for $350 million. Lucky Man will also buy from persons within the company two old buildings in Central to avoid becoming a cash shell. - HK ECONOMIC TIMES Chinese Press Digest is produced by Corporate Information Services. For pre-publication and other services, telephone 865 5006 or fax 865 5835.
