MassMutual Asia keen to issue more yuan insurance policies
MassMutual Asia, the third insurer in Hong Kong to issue yuan insurance policies last year, wants to issue more yuan policies this year as policyholders seek to bet on a yuan appreciation. The company last year sold HK$200 million worth of yuan policies and has received requests from customers and agents to issue more this year, said Tay Keng Puang, managing director and chief executive of MassMutual Asia. Enoch Yiu
Surveyors sound alarm bells over supply of private apartments
The supply of new private homes in Hong Kong will be insufficient to meet demand in coming years, warns the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. The group estimates the city will need 22,000 new private flats each year until 2021 but there will only be around 11,000 new homes this year and next. The group also said about 30 per cent of the households belong to the 'sandwich class' - too wealthy for public housing but with not enough to buy their own homes. Paggie Leung
Broker banned for life for insider dealing in Mirabell acquisition
The Securities and Futures Commission banned broker Zhang Bijia from re-entering the financial industry for life as a penalty for insider dealing. The Market Misconduct Tribunal in September found Zhang and his then girlfriend, Liu Yanyan, had committed insider dealing. The tribunal said Liu, a trainee solicitor at law firm Norton Rose, which advised Belle International Holdings to acquire Mirabell International Holdings in 2008, had learned the price offered by Belle was higher than the market price of Mirabell and traded shares accordingly, making a profit of HK$80,300. The tribunal also ordered Zhang to pay the profit he made as penalty. Enoch Yiu
