China's business press carried the following stories on Wednesday. China.org.cn has not checked the stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

New owner of ICQ to be decided – National Business Daily

AOL Inc. has selected the final bidders for its ICQ instant messaging service, according to reports from foreign media agencies. They are Russia-based Digital Sky Technologies and ProfMedia and China's Tencent.

Tencent, the third-largest Internet company in the world after Google and Amazon, is regarded as the most competitive bidder. Chen Huifen, chief for investor relationship of Tencent, said the company was exploring the overseas market, and its international cooperation projects are mainly in India and Vietnam.

Five power groups appeal for increasing power price - China Business News

Following a rise in coal prices and drought disasters in southwest China, five large Chinese power groups operating in the red appealed for higher power prices.

"The power industry had an industrial loss in February," said Zhu Chengzhang, a member of the specialists committee of China Price Association. "The debt ratio of power enterprises is above 80 percent. If power prices stand still, the ratio will continue to rise, and enterprises will be insolvent in two years."

China raised the power price of non-residential electricity last November.

The power groups are China Power Investment Corporation, China Huaneng Group, China Datang Corporation, China Huadian Corporation and China Guodian Corporation.

CCB to refinance US$11 bln in 2010 -- Southern Metropolis Daily

China Construction Bank plans to refinance 75 billion yuan (US$11 billion) through margin trading and short selling this year to enlarge its capital, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

CCB will raise as much as 45 billion yuan (US$6.59 billion) from private placement on the domestic share market in Shanghai and 30 billion yuan (US$4.39 billion) from issuing additional shares in Hong Kong.

The report didn't release the target of the domestic refinance, but it is believed that Central Huijin Investment, CCB's biggest shareholder, would be the one.

The State Council has already approved the refinancing plan of CCB, according to the report.

A person from the top management of CCB said the details of the refinancing plan are expected to be published in the second half of the year.

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