IPO for China Construction Bank---Otani (medium)
>> citigroup and morgan stanley have scored underwriting work in china to manage a $5 billion initial public offering for the country’s third biggest lender. bloomberg news learned that china construction bank sent the nos―notices to the investment banks today. bankers tell us that china international capital will assist in the stock launch. the two american firms made their presentations three months ago. morgan stanley is the leading i.p.o. underwriter so far this year with a 27% share of the business, earning $3.8 billion in fees on 10 deals and citigroup is second with about 1.2 billion on seven issues. asian stocks on terrorism fears. here’s gene on, otani in our tokyo bureau with a preview of next week pacific rim market action.
>> earnings reports from china and central bank meeting in japan topped the agenda in coming days. earlier this month, morgan stanley increased the earnings forecast for cnoooc by china’s offshore oil producer citing improving global command. cnooc is planning a stock split. china telecom comes out with full-year numbers on wednesday. it had a 9% rise in first-half earnings and installed more phones and signed up internet and cordless phone subscribers using price cuts to boost customers. china telecom’s market share and revenue fell amid intensifying competition. semiconductor manufacturing shares start trading in new york as american depository receipts on march 17 end in hong kong the next day. the shanghai-based company is china’s first chipmaker to sell shares publicly. semiconductor manufacturing raised the maximum $14 billion it sought from the sale, or $1.8 billion u.s. hutchison whampoa releases earnings on thursday. one analyst says the company may post a full-year loss of $12 billion hong kong, and may widen to $14 billion in 2004 and 2005 as the company’s rollout of third generation services in selected countries around the world has had technical problems, including poor video quality and connectivity difficulty. the bank of japan will probably refrain from pumping more cash into the world’s second biggest economy. the yen’s decline eases pressure to slow the currency’s gain. economists surveyed by bloomberg say the bank will keep interest rates at almost zero and leave the upper limit of their target for reserves available to lenders at $35 trillion yen or $315 billion u.s. china releases february retail sales figures on monday. sales with their biggest gain in three years in the first month of the year. disposable income in china’s towns and cities last year topped $1,000 per person for the first time.
>> and now a time to look at world and national newsworld and national news.
