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Denise Tsang

Seapower Financial Services Group said yesterday it was holding talks with 'a few securities houses' at a time when the broking industry is expected to see more mergers and acquisitions.

 Chairman Zhang Liping said the possibility of an acquisition was part of the company's expansion plans in the next few months, which would eventually lead to a separate listing in Hong Kong.

 He said the company had remained almost unscathed in the past two months amid the regional turbulence as it had no exposure to principal trading and fixed income - areas which have hit rivals.

 Mr Zhang would not reveal details of any talks, but said the company owned seven securities trading seats and two futures trading licences and was profitable in the past three years.

 'We're very interested in acquisitions and mergers. We have been approached by a few institutions and we're in discussions with them,' he said after announcing the company's interim results for the six months to September.

 Operating profit at Seapower Financial Services more than doubled to $85.5 million from about $30 million in the same period last year.

 The financial services group is a unit of cold storage owner Seapower Resources International.

 Seapower Resources is owned 44.44 per cent by parent Seapower International Holdings.

 Seapower Resources saw attributable profit jump 141 per cent to $64.11 million, which helped bring the parent company back to a $9.62 million attributable profit from its previous $7.43 million attributable loss.

 Publisher Paramount Publishing Group, 63 per cent owned by Seapower International, reported an attributable loss of $19.74 million compared with a loss of $19.14 million.

 The loss included a $1.15 million exceptional loss from selling its remaining factory premises in Chai Wan.

 Paramount executive director Vincent Cheung Wing-hung said the company had teamed up with state-owned enterprises to launch two magazines in Beijing in June next year and one in Guangzhou next month.

 Paramount would earn advertising income and commission fee on the sales of the magazines, he said.



Seapower says acquisition of another broker a possibility