Macau casino and entertainment resort operator Melco Crown Entertainment has applied to list (note 1) on the Hong Kong main board (主板).
The Nasdaq (note 2)-listed company, which owns the casino (賭場) and hotel complex "City of Dreams" said it is evaluating (評價) a possible listing in Hong Kong.
In other action, container (貨櫃) carrier (船) China Shipping Nauticgreen Holdings postponed (擱置) its HK$1.5 billion initial public offering due to a sluggish (note 3) market. It originally planned to open its retail book (note 4) today. No future date for listing has been given.
Separately, the largest mainland brokerage, CITIC Securities, will have its listing hearing (上市聽證會) on August 18. The company will kick off (note 5) its US$2 billion (HK$15.5 billion) IPO plan soon after passing the process.
New China Life will have its listing hearing in early September. The mainland's third-largest life insurer wants to raise up to US$4 billion (HK$31.2 billion) through a dual listing (兩地同時上市) in Hong Kong and Shanghai.
And another Japanese company is hoping to list locally. Reve21 - a Japanese hair clinic operator (護髮店)- said it will sell two-thirds of its president's stake (note 6) in a global IPO in either Tokyo or Hong Kong. The Osaka-based firm operates 97 branches in Japan.
Bank of East Asia (0023), meanwhile, saw a 29 percent jump in net profit for the first half to HK$2.71 billion from a year back, thrashing (note 7) a market forecast (市場估計) of HK$1.96 billion.
Earnings per share stood at HK$1.24. An interim dividend (股息) of 43 HK cents was declared. Net interest income jumped 19.9 percent year-on- year to HK$4.40 billion while non- interest income soared 28.4 percent to HK$2.23 billion. Net interest margin stabilized at 1.73 percent compared with the end of 2010. "Our mainland business contributed one-third to the total revenue (收入)," said deputy chief executive Brian Li Man-bun.
From good to better English:
(note 1) list=上市。其他說法包括get listed, floated, become publicly-traded等等。List (名詞)= 清單，目錄，表。a black list黑名單。 a casualty list=傷亡名單。a shopping list=購物清單。 be struck off the list=被除名。Victor always passed first on the list=Victor總是以第一名通過考試。
(note 2) Nasdaq= National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation System的簡寫 (美國經紀協會利用電腦全國可以買賣股票)。另一個大市場是New York Stock Exchange (紐約股票交易所)。
(note 3) sluggish=呆鈍的，不活潑的。Sluggish market=不活躍的股票市場。Sluggish的痛一次又down, dull, off, slack, slow, soft等。
(note 4) open its retail book=賣股票給散戶。投資者有散戶和機構投資者 (institutional investors), 例如基金公司。
(note 5) kick off=.開始出售 ( Start, begin)。for kicks=為了取樂。kick around =考慮。kick one's heels= 空等, 久等。kick oneself=嚴厲自責。kick the habit= 戒除嗜好kick the hell out of= 打得落花流水。kicking and screaming= 大聲抱怨。
(note 6) stake =股權。
(note 7) Thrashing=擊敗 (beating)。thrash out=詳細討論 ( discuss fully)。thrash 的通義祠有assail, assault, batter, belabor, buffet, drub, hammer, pound, pummel, smash, thresh等。
Victor’s View: The more firms coming to list in Hong Kong,the better. Although the stock market has been hammered by the downgrade of US bonds, mainland and local companies continue to seek funds from the public.
(Victor Fung Keung, director of HK Baptist University’s M.A. in international journalism program, has published 4 books on English-enhancement [the latest, titled <<學會演說、改變你的人生>>, was published on July 18] and plans to write 6 more by the end of 2012. Write to him: deanfungenglish@gmail.com)
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