Yesterday he praised the People's Bank of China for wisely seeking to cool the overheating stock and property markets - and he hoped that the US Federal Reserve could be 'as smart as the Chinese'.

He even hired a Putonghua-speaking nanny to teach his two daughters (the latest addition to the family is only three weeks old), so that they will be able to buy China shares after talking directly to the China experts.

His latest book, A Bull in China, published last December was a hit, except for his predictions. Instead of surging, the Shanghai A-share index has lost 30 per cent since the book was published.

His other book, Hot Commodity, arguably drove more investors into commodities - but his predictions of surging sugar and cotton prices have yet to come true.

Is he working on a third book? Mr Rogers says he plans to write a book, Letters to My Daughters, and would offer good advice on why they should not listen to stockbrokers - or to their future boyfriends. He believes this advice should also apply to investors.

A dig from Singapore man

Yesterday Singapore-based Mr Rogers also told reporters he would rather be in Hong Kong. When it does not hurt to inhale, that is.

'Please do me a favour,' he said during an ABN Amro product launch yesterday. 'Clean up the air. We'll come to Hong Kong.'

We suspect anything seems more interesting than Singapore. And the smog gives the territory character.

Hitting them where it hurts

If you think managers mint money during good years, think again.

HSBC yesterday said it cancelled 13 directors' share awards last year because they failed to pass performance tests set out under its restricted share plan in 2000.

The performance test is like an internal appraisal based equally on producing earnings per share growth and on total shareholder returns. HSBC's lacklustre share performance effectively killed the directors' bonuses.

As such, a total of 814,000 shares, worth HK$107 million at yesterday's close, were cancelled, including a number earmarked for local chairman Vincent Cheng Hoi-chuen (55,028), chief executive Sandy Flockhart (27,514) and group chairman Stephen Green (137,568).

The bank now plans to change its restricted share plan, adding a new measurement called 'economic profit' to the two existing measures.

Unkindest freeze of all

Still on the subject of managers and their pay, we were surprised to note that most China Mobile salaries and bonuses for executive directors were frozen despite splendid 32 per cent profit growth to a record 87.1 billion yuan (HK$96.85 billion) last year.

We found that for six of 10 China Mobile executive directors remuneration was unchanged last year. The salaries of the six were unchanged at HK$960,000 each plus director fees of HK$180,000.

Chairman Wang Jianzhou last year made HK$5.05 million, down 46 per cent.

The difference reflected the fall in the fair value of their share option - in his case, this represented a dive from HK$7.16 million to HK$2.77 million.

Subsidy is the best medicine

There is more to managing an oil company than watching oil prices - Sinopec chairman Su Shulin yesterday told reporters he approached his job like a Chinese doctor.

'We take the pulse of our subsidiaries as if it's a health check-up,' said Mr Su. 'If we detect a problem, we'll fix it.'

Luckily, Mr Su has the best medicine for his oil refinery managers, who might otherwise be losing sleep over rising oil prices. Thanks to government subsidies, Sinopec pocketed 4.9 billion yuan in the fourth quarter last year and 7.4 billion yuan in the first quarter.