HKMEx faces eviction over rent debt

The cash-strapped Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange is to be evicted from its offices in Cyberport, Pok Fu Lam, after the High Court granted a clearance order over alleged unpaid rent of more than HK$6 million.

A spokeswoman for the Cyberport management said yesterday it was waiting for bailiffs to clear out the 10 units leased by the HKMEx.

The exchange was founded by former executive councillor Barry Cheung Chun-yuen, who was widely seen as the closest aide of Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, but quit all his public posts in May amid police investigations into allegedly bogus documents regarding his company.

In June, Hong Kong Cyberport Management sued the HKMEx for rent, management fees and other charges owed since March. It said in a High Court writ it had received just over HK$1 million from its lessee after demanding more than HK$6 million in outstanding rent in May. It is seeking HK$7 million, including legal costs.

The two-year-old HKMEx, which traded in gold and silver contracts, also failed to generate sufficient income and surrendered its licence to the Securities and Futures Commission in May.

It was reported in June that many of the 100 staff had started to leave, as hopes for new investors to take over the troubled commodities bourse faded in the wake of the investigations.

In August, the Independent Commission Against Corruption dropped its investigation into claims Cheung took HK$70 million in low-interest loans from a property developer when he ran the Urban Renewal Authority.

Nine people have been arrested in a police probe into the company's collapse, with three mainlanders and one Malaysian man charged with possessing false financial instruments.