Press Digest: Hong Kong - Feb 13

Beijing Jingneng Clean Energy

13/02/2014 02:24

HONG KONG, Feb 13 (Reuters) - These are some of the leading stories in Hong Kong newspapers on Thursday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.   SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST  -- A proposed law, The Computer and Cybercrime Act, in the British Virgin Islands will boost Hong Kong's role as an offshore centre serving China, but threatens the freedom of journalists to report on companies in the secretive tax haven, say analysts. (http://link.reuters.com/xex76v) -- Tens of thousands of Chinese millionaires face an uncertain future after Canada's government moved to scrap its controversial investor-visa scheme, which has allowed waves of rich Hongkongers and mainland Chinese to immigrate since 1986. (http://link.reuters.com/hyq76v) -- Hong Kong port could lose more business to Shenzhen because an alliance of three shipping firms, Maersk, CMA CGM and Mediterranean Shipping Co, would need bigger berths for their large vessels, leading to a cut of 10 sailings per week from 18 at the Kwai Tsing container terminal in the city. (http://link.reuters.com/dux76v) THE STANDARD -- Changde Huisheng Meat Food is to open the retail book on Monday for its HK$250 million ($32.2 million) initial public offering in Hong Kong, while the world's third-largest auction house Poly Culture plans to open its retail book on Feb. 24, raising up to $500 million. (http://link.reuters.com/mux76v) -- Two small residential plots in Tuen Mun in Hong Kong have been bought for around HK$2,000 per buildable sq.ft, which is a 12-year low for the district. (http://link.reuters.com/pux76v) HONG KONG ECONOMIC JOURNAL  -- An institutional investor is selling 82.94 million shares of Beijing Jingneng Clean Energy Co Ltd  0579.HK  through a share placement in a price range of HK$4.5 to HK$4.65 for HK$386 million, according to a term sheet. MING PAO DAILY NEWS  -- Hong Kong's ranking for press freedom fell to 61 in 2014 from 58 last year, below Taiwan, Korean and South Africa, according to a report by Reporters Without Borders. -- The number of street sleepers registered in the city reached 700 in 2013, up 25 percent from 2012, according to government data. Forty percent of them were high-school educated while 2 percent were university graduates. Observers said high property prices has made homes unaffordable for many people. APPLE DAILY -- Esprit's  0330.HK  workers in France were staging a strike as the fashion group plans to halve the number of self-operated stores there as part of a restructuring drive and lay off about a hundred staff, Chief Financial Officer Thomas Tang said.  For Chinese newspapers, see............... PRESS/CN    ($1 = 7.7557 Hong Kong dollars) (Reporting by Donny Kwok; Editing by Prateek Chatterjee) ((donny.kwok@thomsonreuters.com)(+852 2843 6470)(Reuters Messaging: donny.kwok.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: PRESS DIGEST HONGKONG/