PRESS DIGEST - Top stories in Hong Kong and mainland China newspapers on March 11

These are the leading stories in Hong Kong and mainland Chinese newspapers and websites on Wednesday. The South China Morning Post has not verified these stories.

Many bosses of firms listed on Shenzhen’s Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Board have pledged their shares and raised loans to increase their stakes in their firms, following in the footsteps of many main board A-share firms. They are doing so to avoid their stakes being diluted ahead of planned new share issuance and also want to raise their stakes before their firms’ share prices surge further amid the bull market. Some pledged shares were later repackaged by financial institutions and sold to investors as investment products. (China Securities Journal)

The new Silk Road fund will introduce some mid- to long-term institutional investors as its shareholders, and will initially rely on China Development Bank’s large reserve of overseas projects, China Ex-im Bank’s funding and China Investment Corp’s overseas investment experience, the head of CDB’s Shaanxi branch, Wang Jun, and CIC deputy general manager Liang Rang said. Its main investment targets include infrastructure, energy, steel, power and telecommunications projects in nations along the Silk Road. (Economic Information Daily)