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SCMP Reporter

DELICIOUS cold revenge: Is it on the menu in the Jardines' boardroom this week?   A large part of the stock exchange's administration is based in Jardine House, where the exchange has one-and-a-half floors.

  But the lease is up at the end of March and, with only 40 days left, negotiations are not yet complete on the lease.

  Cynics say there are difficulties in negotiations and that these can be traced back to an earlier crossing of swords.

  The story is that in the course of the delisting process in Hong Kong, Jardines has taken its revenge on the stock exchange, which refused to see things the Keswick way and suitably alter the takeovers and mergers code to suit the family.

  But Jonathan Petit, head of leasing at Hongkong Land, put Lai See totally straight on the matter: 'The exchange is staying. The only reason things haven't been finalised is because the exchange wants more space.

  'We cannot give it on the upper floor so they will keep the whole of the 36th floor. But the 37th floor will move to a lower floor. They will take up more than half a floor.'    Mr Petit refused to say what floor was being looked at.

  Another well-informed source confirms that negotiations on the 36th floor are just about settled but suggests the problem with the 37th floor is in some way connected with what lies one flight upstairs: the Jardines boardroom.

  Perhaps the delisted-but-still-here types need two floors together.

  Whether room can be found for the exchange on a lower floor is a moot point.

  Despite the drops in rents in Central, no 'to let' signs have so far been spotted in the windows of empty floors at Jardine House.

   Over a barrel  AN ancient Japanese saying has it that 'when the wind blows, coopers get rich'.

  This is because wind blows up dust, which makes some people blind. They in turn have nothing to do but play the Shamisen (with us so far?) . . . and so cats are killed to make the strings, as a result of which rats breed fast and, as rats gnaw barrels, the coopers make money.

  In English, people might be more likely to say 'it's an ill wind which blows nobody any good,' and they wouldn't still be explaining what they meant two weeks hence - but the principle is the same.

  In this case, the wind was Tuesday's earthquake in Japan which has killed thousands around the city of Kobe.

  The coopers are the companies which are set to benefit and the investors in those companies.

  The proverb comes from Sixty Seconds that will Change the World by Peter Hadfield.

  Back in 1991, Mr Hadfield wrote all about the long-expected but ill-prepared-for mega-quake predicted to hit Tokyo one day.

   The stock tips provided in Mr Hadfield's book by Peter Tasker of Kleinwort Benson and Alan Bell of Barings were pretty good, despite having been made with a different scenario in mind from what actually happened.

  Nicholas Edwards, director at Jardine Fleming in Tokyo, said brokerage earthquake contingency plans focused on the idea of a much bigger Tokyo quake. But not surprisingly the construction sector has done well out of the Kobe quake. The top gainer shortly before Tokyo closed yesterday was Shobond, a bridge building and repair specialist which put on three per cent.

  By contrast, the worst hit share was a bank based closest to the epicentre, while companies like Sumitomo Rubber, which had a big factory in the earthquake zone, also got clobbered. Most quake scenarios focus heavily on the impact on the yen for a simple reason: the devastation in Tokyo is almost certain to cause the stock exchange computer to crash, situated as it is in a neighbourhood totally destroyed in 1923, according to Money Culture by Michael Lewis.

  Mr Lewis asked an exchange official what the contingency plans was.

  'It's okay,' the official replied. 'We have another computer.'   'Where?' asked Lewis.

  'Next door to the other one,' said the official.

   Double Dutch  STILL on the Japan theme, it is always important to remember that timing is vital in business.

  Congratulations to ING Insurance International of the Netherlands which said yesterday it had received Finance Ministry approval to set up a wholly-owned insurer in Japan.

  It thus becomes the first Dutch insurer in the Japanese market taking over an office owned by the parent company.

  ING also set up a Beijing fund just as China went from investment flavour of the month to investment lemon status.

   The fund managed to fall 15.7 per cent on its debut on the Hong Kong exchange.

   Nutty  AMID China's bid to curry favour with the World Trade Organisation by cutting tariffs on 260-odd imports, it also trimmed the taxes on some of China's exports - nine of them to be exact.

  Eight are rather dull products - metals and minerals, but the ninth is interesting - chestnuts.

  The local chestnut seller looked totally unprepared for the unprecedented wave of cheap chestnuts poised to break over him.

  So are we. Is this a good thing for chestnut sellers because margins will harden? Or is this a bad thing because the low prices will encourage competition? 



Exchange floored by Jardines' cold revenge?