World News by Wild Rose

One of Hong Kong’s last traditional sauce makers is to cease operations, ending its 90-year legacy, after authorities cleared land at its Kwu Tung factory on Friday. Established in 1936, Kui Lee Sauce and Preserved Fruit confirmed to the South China Morning Post that it would close down once its remaining inventory at its shop in Wan Chai was sold. “Our factory in Kwu Tung has halted production, and all remaining stock is at our retail shop. We will close permanently after selling through all...

Only 3 per cent of Hong Kong companies have fully integrated AI into their workflows, with many facing hurdles including resistance to organisational change and outdated digital infrastructure, a survey has found. Consultancy Accenture, which polled 150 companies and released the results on Wednesday, said the survey suggested businesses had a strong desire to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) in their work but many struggled to put it into practice. “Hong Kong really has strong AI ambitions...

A second batch of land at Hong Kong’s flagship tech hub at the border with mainland China has drawn nine bids, with frontier technology firms and major conglomerates among the tenderers. The Loop Hong Kong Park Company, which operates the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park (HSITP), revealed the results on Tuesday, nearly two months after six bids were received from conglomerates and hi-tech firms for its inaugural land tender at the end of August. Tuesday’s tender covered three...

Suzhou Dongshan Precision Manufacturing raised less than expected in its Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO), as investors weighed potential US trade restrictions on its optical modules business amid the city’s cautious appetite for mega listings, analysts said. The company has started taking investor orders for a Hong Kong listing, offering 113.7 million shares at a maximum price of HK$93.80 per share, according to its prospectus on Tuesday. A total of 20 cornerstone investors have agreed...

Ten to 20 more companies are set to establish or expand operations in Hong Kong, including leading drug makers and a semiconductor business, with a roughly equal number of mainland Chinese and overseas firms, the head of a government investment office has said. Peter Yan King-shun, director general of the Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises (OASES), a government body under the Financial Secretary’s Office, offered a preview of the developments on Sunday, with details of the next batch of...

Former investment banker Shervin Sharghy takes a practical approach to plastic recycling, first asking whether it makes financial sense before tackling the technical challenges. The founder of Hong Kong-based EcoBricks said the main obstacle to recycling plastic was often economic rather than scientific. Collecting, sorting, cleaning and processing waste plastic typically costs more than producing new materials from oil and gas, particularly at the small scale at which most recyclers...

Revamped CTF Media and Entertainment, which holds one of Hong Kong’s three free-to-air television licences, plans to expand its focus beyond TV programmes and broadband to entertainment and the sports economy as its traditional businesses stagnate. Revealing the new logo of the company previously known as i-Cable Communications, CEO and executive director Ivy Wong Nga-fan listed its five core areas going forward: event organisation and investment; celebrity merchandising and e-commerce;...

Amid Hong Kong’s commercial property downturn, British conglomerate Jardine Matheson has sold a street shop in Causeway Bay for HK$80 million (US$10.2 million) after holding it for more than 50 years, accepting a price HK$10 million below its earlier valuation. The property, a ground-floor shop in H&S Building at 36 Leighton Road, with a gross floor area of about 11,727 square feet, was acquired by Uni Investment Development, according to Land Registry records. Jardine Matheson appointed an...

The operator of Hong Kong’s flagship San Tin Technopole has pledged to offer affordable land to attract tenants, while revealing plans to reclaim and redevelop fish ponds near the Shenzhen border to accommodate a client requiring substantial premises. Sunny Chai Ngai-chiu, chairman of San Tin Technopole Company Limited, the government-owned entity overseeing the technology cluster next to the mainland Chinese border, said on Wednesday that he would follow the land-grant approach used for the...

Beijing-based jeweller Laopu Gold has leased an entire mid-floor at One Exchange Square in Central to support its global expansion, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The brand was taking around 13,000 square feet at the flagship Central tower, which houses Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX), one source said. The deal comes as mainland consumer firms and financial institutions increasingly anchor their presence in Hong Kong’s core business district. Recent transactions on...