The man who once advised filling in Tolo Harbour declared Hong Kong would go the way of Cuba should gullible voters choose a man who, the horror of it, dresses himself in Che Guevara tee-shirts.

Alas, Sir Gordon did not return Lai See's call yesterday seeking his emigration plans.

Presumably he could move to the other side of the Pearl River Delta should his grand Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai bridge win approval. That decision will of course require approval from, among others, a scruffy chap in a tee-shirt.

goldman opts for genetic marketing

Goldman Sachs seeks the best talent, even if that means snagging the apple of its top client's eye.

When your recruit is the eldest daughter of Hutchison Whampoa group managing director Canning Fok Kin-ning you at least know you are swimming in the right gene pool. Fresh out of Cambridge University, Fok Shan-yan recently landed on the firm's equity capital markets desk where Lai See understands she will be an active member of the team selling public share offerings for, among others, Hutchison Telecommunications International.

Chinese walls mean Dad is going to have to keep mum over the dinner table on the inner workings of the hard-to-understand rough diamond that is Hutchison's global telecoms play but if Ms Fok has half the sales skills of her pugnacious father, the offering could yet go better than most pundits tip.

pccw takes care of rival's mail

The only thing worse than being talked about, Oscar Wilde said, was not being talked about.

City Telecom chairman Ricky Wong Wai-kay would seem to agree. Until PCCW's 700,000 Netvigator subscribers last week received a warning letter about the perils of using CTI's voice over internet protocol (VoIP) service, most consumers had little idea what was on offer, figuring it was another talk-at-your-PC device, of interest only to nerds.

PCCW's hard-ball tactics seem to have back-fired judging by the response from even Lai See's English-speaking colleagues (generally late adopters) who are abuzz with VoIP prospects.

Seeking to explain the marketing challenge of selling VoIP, Mr Wong says it is like flogging contact lenses. 'Initially people could not believe you could install hard lenses into your eye, but once they experience the comfort, they are quickly moving on to soft lenses.'

Like all telephone firms facing the IP world, Mr Wong must hope consumers don't go for laser treatment and cut him out of the loop as well.

conference delegates wax lyrical

It seems you can't throw a serious conference without getting a top-name music act. Tomorrow is expected to see Elton John perform at CLSA's investor bash while Forbes has lined up American soul singing diva Dionne Warwick for its chief executive conference next week.

The two stars are not expected to team up, which is a shame for those who recall their famous 1985 number That's What Friends Are For. Attendees will, however, hear the libertarian lament of Steve 'do away with all taxation' Forbes, heavyweight analysis on the United States election and topics linked to its 'Connected World' theme.

Since the conference reaches for big topics Lai See hopes for a few renditions from the Endless Love soundtrack on which Warwick played.

pass the gas firm a family game

The dust has settled. After much arm's length discussion, Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings (CKI) has elected to sell a 19.9 per cent stake in its newly acquired British gas company to its associate Hongkong Electric Holdings (HEH) for #524 million (HK$7.34 billion).

The deal constituted a 'very substantial disposal' for CKI, a discloseable and connected transaction for HEH, and a discloseable transaction for parent, Hutchison Whampoa.

CKI will book neither a profit nor a loss from the deal, but here is the benefit.

'The directors of CKI believe the terms of the transactions are fair and reasonable and in the interests of the CKI shareholders as a whole,' according to the public statement.

Reciprocally, HEH declared, 'The directors of HEH believe the terms of the transactions are fair and reasonable and in the interests of the HEH shareholders as a whole.' It is nice to be in one family after all.