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Ben Kwok

The share prices of CLP Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa were hit yesterday because of worries about the impact on the companies' Indian assets from last week's devastating earthquake in Gujarat state.

On the first trading day following the Lunar New Year holiday, the two blue chips suffered because of their heavier exposure in India than counterparts, and concern on the part of investors that their assets in Gujarat would be hurt, analysts said.

Hutchison shares dropped HK$1 to close at HK$103.50.

CLP Holdings suffered a bigger loss, ending the day at HK$35.60, down 90 HK cents or 2.47 per cent.

CLP's newly acquired power plant, named GPEC, is in Gujarat State, where an earthquake registering 7.9 on the Richter scale took place last week.

However, Sandra Mak, a spokesman for CLP Holdings, said the power plant was not damaged in the earthquake and its operations were not interrupted.

Analysts also said they believed the power station would not be affected.

They said the fall in the share price resulted from the fears of some investors that the 655-megawatt power plant, which generated HK$378.5 million in after-tax earnings in the year to March 31 last year, might have been damaged.

'The counter has shown no major up-side after the acquisition was announced, which means no positive contribution has been factored-in, so there is no reason for the price to drop now, no matter if there is any impact,' an analyst with a United States-based investment bank said.

CLP agreed to buy a 70 per cent interest in GPEC among a basket of power assets which cost US$594 million last month.

Analysts are also worried that Hutchison Whampoa, one of the largest foreign investors in India's mobile market, will be hurt by its exposure.

Fascel, the mobile operator in which Hutchison acquired a 49 per cent stake in the second half of last year, operates in Gujarat.

Canning Fok Kin-ning, group managing director of Hutchison Whampoa, has said the company had invested US$500 million in Indian mobile assets which he saw as the next jewels in the group.

Hutchison, which also had investments and management participation in Mumbai, Delhi and Calcutta, had plans to consolidate its Indian assets before listing in the next 12 to 18 months.

Hutchison now had a 49 per cent stake in each of Hutchison Max Telecom, Sterling Cellular, Usha Martin Telekom and Fascel.

It had 470,000 subscribers in India at the end of June last year.

A spokesman for Hutchison Whampoa was not available yesterday for comment on its Indian operations.



Investors fear disaster may hurt companies' Indian assets