Yesterday, Mr Lam's eSun Holdings made a general offer of 26.5 Singapore cents (HK$1.35) per share for the thinly traded Media Asia. That's a premium of almost 40 per cent to the current share price but only slightly above its 2004 initial public offering price of 25 Singapore cents.

ESun, which owns 37 per cent of the production house, says the reason for taking Media Asia private is that its strategic shift to large-budget films requiring longer production times will make its results more volatile. Besides, the administrative and compliance costs of maintaining a separate listing for such a small firm are high.

However, Media Asia may be sitting on a gold mine.

Warner Brothers, which produced The Departed, appears to be trying for a second bite of the cherry. It reportedly has offered Media Asia US$2 million plus a share of the profits to license a Hollywood remake of its current hit, Confession of Pain.

Who knows what could happen once Hollywood producers start trolling through the 269 films in Media Asia's vault?

love affair with disney

Hong Kong Disneyland yesterday recorded its largest-ever overseas group of visitors and it was a unisex affair.

Charle, the Japanese lingerie maker, shipped in 5,500 female members of its staff. They arrived at 4pm in a parade of nearly 200 buses and immediately took over most of the rooms in the two Disneyland hotels.

The company, it seems, has a love affair with Mickey Mouse.

It holds a similar event every year at one of the Disney theme parks. Last year, it took staff to the original Disneyland in Anaheim, California.

red packets for ocean park staff

Ocean Park, the humble homegrown theme park whose fortunes have revived while Hongkong Disneyland is treading water, has rewarded its 950 full-time staff with a HK$2,800 lai see gift.

They and the more than 500 part-time staff also received a HK$1,000 gift coupon.

We hear that the Disney International people who work at Times Square got HK$2,500 each.

where some miss, others don't

Stock markets may be fairly predictable over the long term but in the short run they have the potential to make fools of us all.

No doubt Citigroup analysts Joe Lo and Patricia Pong can appreciate the truth of that statement.

On Tuesday, they issued a report on Hong Kong entitled 'Good Signs for a Prosperous Year of the Pig'. Within 48 hours of its release, the Hang Seng Index had surrendered 856 points. Ouch.

The Shanghai/Shenzhen meltdown didn't faze another Citigroup prognosticator, head of China research Lan Xue. On Tuesday, she told clients the much feared prospect of a capital gains tax was remote and the upcoming results season would have positive surprises in store.

Judging by yesterday's performance, when the A shares rebounded nearly 4 per cent after their near-10 per cent collapse the day before, some people share her optimism.

a touch of reality

Our item yesterday about Securities and Futures Commission chief Martin Wheatley and his family taking part in Crossroads International's 'Slum Survivor' charity event drew a swift reaction from Hong Kong Stockbrokers Association chairman Tony Espina.

'It is very brave of Martin Wheatley and his family to 'slum it' for a weekend,' wrote Mr Espina. 'He will now know how the rest of us [Category C brokers] have to live from hand to mouth.'