Analysts expect short-term volatility in Sun Hung Kai Properties' stock after its joint chairmen, Thomas Kwok Ping-kwong and Raymond Kwok Ping-luen, begin a legal battle that is expected to last several years.
The billionaire brothers who run the developer are digging in for a tough fight with the Independent Commission Against Corruption by hiring three big law firms.
People in finance and property circles thought the two brothers might share the same legal team in a joint defence, but they have gone their separate ways and hired different counsel.
Raymond Kwok has hired British firm Reed Smith Richards Butler. His elder brother Thomas has retained London-headquartered Clifford Chance and Hong Kong-based Boase Cohen & Collins.
A third brother, Walter Kwok Ping-sheung, the eldest who was forced out of the property developer in a bitter family feud, subsequently was arrested and is out on bail.
The case is one of the highest-level corruption investigations in the city's history.