Broker buys stake

HAITONG Securities Co, China's biggest brokerage by market value, bought a 26.6-percent stake in Shanghai Pudong Road & Bridge Construction Co after failing to sell the contractor's shares in an equity offering.

Haitong paid 980 million yuan (US$142.8 million) to buy more than 92 million shares, or 77 percent of the 120 million shares pledged to the market by Pudong Road in the additional offering, according to a statement filed by the contractor yesterday to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.