Beijing's Chaoyang court Monday ruled in favor of Hong Kong typhoon Li Ka-shing's friend Zhou Kaixuan and two of Li's companies in a libel lawsuit against mainland financial magazine Caijing.

In July, Cheung Kong (Holdings) Limited, Hutchison Whampoa Limited and Li Ka-shing Foundation director Zhou Kaixuan jointly filed a lawsuit against Caijing over an article published on Jun. 7 which suggests the three plaintiffs were involved in the corruption case of former Commerce Ministry official Guo Jingyi. The plaintiffs demanded public apologies from at least ten media organizations and compensation of 600,000 yuan for the two companies and US$500,000 for Zhou.

On Monday, Beijing's Chaoyang court ordered Caijing Magazine and Caijing.com to publicly apologize to the three plaintiffs and pay notarization fees of 3,000 yuan to one of the companies and 4,000 yuan to Zhou. All other claims for damages were rejected.

The two sides have not yet disclosed whether they will appeal the court's decision.

China's business press carried the story above on Wednesday.