	hutchison sees higher payout satisfactory profits hutchison whampoa ltd hwhh hk expects satisfactory profits in and will pay a higher dividend for the year chairman li ka shing said he did not make any specific projections for the company s ings this year but he said the firm will pay a dividend of not less than cents per share after a proposed four for one stock split and a one for four bonus issue it paid total dividends of dlrs per share last year equal to cents per share adjusting for the bonus and share split hutchison which has operations ranging from trading to property and container terminals earlier reported after tax profits of billion dlrs against billion dlrs in the total excluded extraordinary gains of mln dlrs partly from the sale of some of its stake in the south china morning post the leading english language newspaper compared with mln dlrs the previous year it said it expects another mln dlr gain in from the sale of the remaining shares li said hong kong s property market remains strong while its economy is performing better than forecast with its largely export led growth gross domestic product grew by nearly nine pct last year against an initial government projection of pct but he said hong kong s large trade deficit with the u s may result in protectionist measures that will adversely affect the british colony he said all of the company s major operations showed improved results in hutchison said earlier it will sell its entire pct interest in hongkong electric holdings ltd hkeh hk to cavendish international holdings ltd itself a spin off from hongkong electric under a reorganisation announced separately hongkong electric will spin off all its non electricity related activities into cavendish which will be listed on the local stock exchange hongkong electric shareholders will receive one share in cavendish for every hongkong electric share cavendish will buy the mln hongkong electric shares from hutchison by issuing mln new shares the spin off and the sale of hongkong electric shares will give hutchison a pct stake in cavendish li said the decision to spin off cavendish is to relieve hongkong electric of public criticism of the power company for making risky investments but he denied there was pressure from the government for the spin off he said cavendish will have seven billion dlrs of assets and will be almost debt free with mln dlrs of liabilites its major assets are the hong kong hilton hotel property development and interests in husky oil ltd hyo to of canada and pearson plc pson l of britain reuter 
