Saga of HSBC, the FT and the Sevens ticket that got kicked into touch
We hear that relations between HSBC and the Financial Times hit a patch of turbulence recently. A few weeks ago the 'Pink 'Un' interviewed Peter Wong and later followed up with some questions which in hindsight do not appear to have been answered with total clarity.
The upshot was that the newspaper published a story about HSBC's Asian operations with a sub-headline that caused some disquiet at the bank. Communications were exchanged and the FT clarified the matter in a subsequent edition. So far so good.
However, it appears that while pleasantries were being exchanged before the story appeared, HSBC - as a sponsor of the Hong Kong Sevens - had kindly offered the FT a ticket to the event.
But following the unhappiness with the story's headline it appears that the ticket didn't materialise.
However, we gather that subsequent to our inquiries, the offer of the ticket has rematerialised, though we're not suggesting we had anything to do with this. But the FT apparently was unable to take up the offer due to the emergence of other matters. So all's well that ends well - up to a point.