Rumour mill ready to roll on Sheng's watchdog role
Who's in and who's out are the big questions as we enter the Donald Tsang era, so it was no surprise to hear on the rumour mill that Securities and Futures Commission chairman Andrew Sheng may reconsider his decision to quit after his contract expires in September.
The thinking goes like this: when Mr Tsang wins the July 10 election to become chief executive, he will appoint close friend Rafael Hui Si-yan, the former secretary for financial services, to replace him as chief secretary, and as Mr Sheng is on good terms with both men, he will stay on as head of the securities watchdog.
However, it may be too late for Mr Sheng to go back on his decision. He has already declared his grand plan of writing a book and at last month's SFC spring reception even went as far as giving journalists lucky draw tickets for when the tome is finished.
Other rumours of changes involve Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Frederick Ma Si-hang who, although he is not on bad terms Mr Tsang, is seen as a close friend of former financial secretary Antony Leung Kam-chung, who is said not to be on very good terms with the acting chief executive.
However, one friend of Mr Ma said he wanted to stay on as he was more concerned about serving the public.
Roll on summer!
Wishing on a Tsang
White Collar received these three wishes to pass on to the acting chief executive.
From an insurance salesperson: 'We hope your wish comes true that Hong Kong couples have three children as it means greater demand for life insurance and educational funds.'
From a fund manager: 'Please don't buy into the stock market like you did in 1998 spoiling our chances of cheap shares.'
From a broker: 'Please buy into the stock market again, especially penny stocks, but don't think of extending our trading hours because you should never spoil lunch.'
more of the dynamic duo
Mr Tsang and Mr Hui, the dynamic duo during the 1998 market intervention, are turning out to be the dream team of this year's Arts Festival.
As chief secretary, it was routine for Mr Tsang to be invited as guest of honour for the festival's final performance on Sunday by the Ballet Nacional de Espa?a.
He will be keeping that appointment now as acting chief executive and will be able to announce that this year's Arts Festival has been a record success, selling 102,028 tickets - 85 per cent of those available - for a total of $27.43 million. The previous record was $26.34 million, set in 2001.
No doubt Mr Tsang will add a note of thanks to Mr Hui, who is the vice-chairman of the festival's executive committee and chairman of the programme committee.
We wonder if Mr Hui will be the guest of honour for the festival's finale next year.
The art of success
Hang Seng Bank, the sponsor of the Arts Festival finale, has also been hosting another cultural activity - the East Meets West Hang Seng leisure class calligraphy and painting exhibition - which closes tomorrow.
The bank asked Dr Fang Zhao-lin, the mother of former chief secretary Anson Chan Fang On-sang, to display three of her works in the exhibition along with those of some of its prestige clients.
These are people who have at least $500,000 tied up in the bank's wealth management services - many of them retirees or tai-tais, who obviously have a lot of leisure time on their hands.
butt what about health?
White Collar is all for discouraging smoking, but news that a bank in town has decided that the job of ash-tray lady is worth only $7,600 a month instead of the current $8,000 is going a bit far.
The lady' job is to collect, clean and distribute ash-trays in the bank's offices. Simple enough, but what about the risk from second-hand smoke?
take a chance on me
Congratulations to Clifford Chance which won six awards, including International Law Firm of the Year, at the International Financial Law Review Asian Awards Ceremony.
The firm also took the securitisation deal of the year award for its work representing HSBC and Citigroup as joint lead managers on the $6 billion securitisation of the government-owned Tsing Ma bridges and five road tunnels - the first deal of its kind in Asia, excluding Japan.
Other awards were for securitisation team of the year, distressed asset team of the year, distressed asset deal of the year and restructuring deal of the year.
