Lai See
FIT AS A FUND MANAGER
By recent standards, it was a dull day on the market yesterday with turnover at only about $11 billion. All sorts of reasons were proffered by market watchers. But the one we liked best had it that a lot of fund management firms field teams for the annual Trailwalker endurance test and they were tired after their exertions.
the great UNWRAPPED
What better way to show your brand new building is empty than to wrap it up in newspaper? Such was the state of IFC 2 over the past month, as it was draped with an enormous replica of the Financial Times' new Asia edition.
Regular Lai See readers may remember that rival executives at the Central Plaza-headquartered Asian Wall Street Journal were so put off by their bird's-eye view of the competition that they reportedly relocated a strategy session to Singapore. We therefore wondered if Journal commandos had anything to do with the steady disintegration of the FT's banner over recent days. But it appears the ad's time is up and is being taken down as scheduled. No extension for all those smog-choked days when you couldn't see it.
FRENCH FOLLIES
Is BNP Paribas trying to compete with CLSA to host the most amusing China conference? At a meeting with investors in Chengdu last week, the firm took its clients to a lavish outdoor meal in a courtyard home, with dancers and gymnasts equipped with flame- throwers. Then one BNP official delivered a speech in Qing dynasty costume. All that was missing was Bill Clinton and his sax.
