BUSINESS MEMO: TELECOMMUNICATIONS STAKE

Just weeks before control of Hong Kong changes hands, China Telecom is buying a 5.5 percent stake in Hongkong Telecommunications Ltd. for $1.18 billion from the international telephone operator Cable & Wireless PLC. The deal is the first step in a partnership that could eventually make China's state-run telephone company an equal partner with Cable & Wireless in the lucrative Hong Kong telephone market, while offering Cable & Wireless a foothold in China, a nation of 1.2 billion people...