We don't normally like to split hairs with Li Ka-shing. But we were struck by his recent comments about the Cheung Kong Center. Li said that just because he wanted to sell ParknShop did not mean he was withdrawing from Hong Kong, adding: "to me, if I sell this building [Cheung Kong Center], you should start to worry." Strictly speaking it is not altogether "his" to sell. First off, the building is owned by Hutchison Whampoa and not Cheung Kong. It's not clear how much, if anything was paid for the naming rights. The Li Ka-shing Unity Trust owns 39.43 per cent of Cheung Kong, which in turn owns 52.45 per cent of Hutchison according to Bloomberg. So the trust has an indirect 20 per cent in this building. Which means, er … it is not his to sell.
We hear of unruly behaviour by bankers at a somewhat strained meeting of underwriters involved in the China Huishan Dairy IPO. At one point the meeting erupted into a shouting match between the HSBC and Goldman bankers in front of about 20 other underwriters, according to Reuters.
The row in this instance revolved around the issue of cornerstone investors. It appears that HSBC had done rather well in its efforts to secure cornerstone investors for the firm and felt it should be given credit for its part. Typically, according to Reuters, this can involve a bank being put in charge of investor meetings, getting a greater financial cut, or playing a lead role in the firm's post-IPO stock trading.
However, other underwriters felt that HSBC was seeking more credit than it deserved, prompting the Goldman banker to threaten to get his HSBC rival fired. At this point a more junior HSBC banker joined in and after several more angry exchanges reportedly said: "Do you know who my father is? Do you know who my grandfather is?" This is the kind of language normally used by princelings. However, according to Reuters, one of those involved in the IPO said the banker did not have family ties to the mainland's political elite. It's apparently not unusual for rival bankers to yell at each other over deals, but not at such a large meeting.