One clear takeaway from the chairman's letter to shareholders in the Hang Lung Group 2012 annual report is that Ronnie Chan Chichung was no supporter of the previous administration. He has always used this platform to take a few swipes at the government in the past, but he evidently feels the change at the top has given him the elbow room for a couple of free hits at Donald Tsang Yam-kuen's administration.
"Because of the inexcusable failure of the Hong Kong government to sell land 2005-2010, our residential market is totally distorted … our city has had a deficit of land supply for about a decade," he starts off. "Equally devastating as not selling land was the negligence to build up a government land bank for longer term needs." When the effect of the undersupply finally erupted some two years ago he writes, the then government did "pitifully little to address the issue".
However, the wheel of fortune has apparently turned. "As I predicted six months ago when our city's new Chief Executive first took office, proper steps would be taken to remedy the situation for both the short and the long term. Indeed it came to pass." This may come as a surprise to some readers. Measures may have been taken, but they are clearly not working. Indeed, Chan goes on to say that there can be no short-term solutions without incurring longer-term negative consequences. He freely concedes that, "ironically, as the government errors of the past years drove up prices, we became a beneficiary", though adds he was a keen advocate of more land sales.
Shareholders in the shipping company Pacific Basin Shipping may be pleasantly surprised when they see the venue for their upcoming annual general meeting in April. The company, which usually holds its AGMs in a hotel, will this year hold it in the recently opened Maritime Museum at Central Ferry Pier No8.
Surrounded by the history of Hong Kong's shipping industry, it is a fitting location for a shipping company to hold a meeting of this kind. It is the first shipping company to hold such a meeting at the museum and it's clearly a good way for the shipping industry to continue its support of the museum, since whatever it pays to hire the venue goes to the museum rather than a hotel.