LEUNG Siu-ling, managing director of Hong Kong Toy Centre, says sales of the company's property investments in Dongguan will earn more than $300 million, which will be entered into the company's accounts over three years, starting next year. According to Mr Leung the company has invested in a luxury property development which will be sold in three stages, making as much as $320 million. Mr Leung says Hong Kong Toy Centre's property plans have not been affected by the austerity programme, other than by the delay to next year of the sale of the third phase of the luxury development. Mr Leung says 70 to 80 per cent of units in the first and second phases have been sold. Regarding its toy production, Mr Leung said the company will expand its mainland retail business and open stores in Wuhan, Dalian and other mainland cities in the second half of this year. - MING PAO PETER Sutch, chairman of Swire Pacific, says the recovery of the airline industry has been slower than anticipated, leading to a downward revision of forecasts by brokers of Cathay's profits for the year. An analyst at Hoare Govett says Cathay's European and Japanese routes have been disappointing, causing Cathay's passenger volume on these routes to drop in the first five months of this year, from 73.2 per cent of the total volume in the same period last year, to 67.8 per cent this year. Swire management says it expects the Japanese routes to recover from October to November this year but the number of Japanese tourists visiting Hong Kong dropped by 15 per cent for the early part of this year. Hoare Govett forecasts a profit of $2.57 billion for the year toDecember 1993. - MING PAO LEE Man-fai, a director of Wo Kee Hong, says the company plans to buy properties in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, for leasing. The investment for these will be under $200 million. On the earnings for the year, Mr Lee says operating revenues and profits should show double digit growth. Operating revenue for its mainland business set a record in July, says Mr Lee. He says the company will continue to expand its sales and servicing network on the mainland. It has eight offices and 10 servicepoints in China at the moment. Four more of each should be added before the end of the year. - ORIENTAL DAILY NEWS CHINA'S Securities Commission has announced its approval for China Refrigerator to list in Hong Kong. A spokesman for the Securities Commission points out that the application for listing had been approved months ago but that China Refrigerator had to wait for the initial listing of some of the nine state enterprises before it could list in the territory. - ORIENTAL DAILY NEWS FORMA Property Investments Ltd, major shareholder of Ong's Holdings, says the deadline for the offer to minority shareholders was yesterday. Shareholders representing 10,587 shares accepted the proposal, or 0.01 per cent of the company's issued capital. Including these, Forma now holds 52.69 million Ong's shares, or 55.36 per cent of the issued capital. - ECONOMIC TIMES WONG Shau-kee, secretary of Termbray Industrial, says that despite the loss of orders from AT & T, the increase in its printed circuit board business has boosted the company's earnings. Mr Wong expects profits to increase in the first half of this year. Inthe year to March 31 the company's profits dropped 55 per cent because of the loss of AT & T's orders. To compensate for this it is seeking other customers. Mr Wong says the company has begun the pre-sale of property in Zhongshan and earnings from this will be entered into this year's accounts. - ECONOMIC TIMES HENDERSON Land plans to pre-sell a commercial building in Yau Ma Tei next Wednesday. The price is not set yet. Since the supply of new commercial developments in the area is limited, the price will set a benchmark for office blocks there. - ECONOMIC JOURNAL DAO Heng, a subsidiary of Guoco, will issue US dollar debt paper worth HK$1.2 billion. the issue will be arranged by Barclays (International) and will be part of the financing for the acquisition of Overseas Trust Bank. - MING PAO THE Sing Tao Group is in discussion with printing companies and newspaper publishers on the mainland for the joint operation of printing enterprises there. Sing Tao is planning to establish a representative office in Shanghai in addition to the one it has in Guangzhou. - SING TAO SHKP has been given approval to redevelop the Taikoo soft drink plant in Tsuen Wan into a commercial and industrial building. SHKP bought the plant from Swire earlier this year. A property of more than 1.1 million square feet will be built. - SING TAO RUMOURS abound that Oriental Press has profited by up to $60 million from shell stock speculation through the year. The company's financial year ends in March, so its interim results will not reflect this. - TIN TIN DAILY NEWS THE performance of shell stocks showed signs of recovery yesterday and it has been rumoured that Shougang is making major plans for the companies it acquired. The focus will be the restructuring of Santai Holdings. This news boosted the price of Santai yesterday. - SING PAO THE share prices of blue-chips such as Hongkong Bank and China Light and Power are close to or have set record highs. On the contrary, Cheung Kong shares have not reached $29 this year. Analysts expect Cheung Kong will make up for lost ground soon. - SING PAO PROFIT for Hon Kwok Land jumped 100 per cent in the past year and it is thought there will be even bigger gains this year. The sale of properties in Causeway Bay and Tsim Sha Tsui will bring in up to $400 million. - SING PAO CAPITAL Asia rose by 10 per cent at one point yesterday. Despite a weak performance late in the session its price should consolidate at the $4 level. Securities sources say the company has a number of big plans in the pipeline and the $6 price forecast earlier this year should materialise eventually. - WEN WEI PO Chinese Press Digest is produced by Corporate Information Services. For pre-publication service and other services, telephone 865 5006 or fax 865 5835.
