WHEN listed companies are faced with major changes in their financial circumstances, the management involved is obliged to tell investors what is going on.
Since 1990, Hong Kong has experienced a period of boom and the surprises from Hong Kong incorporated have tended to be nice ones where firms report better than expected results.
Rising interest rates have changed all that. Surprises, when they come in the coming months, are more likely to be on the downside.
And so we find Hongkong Telecom grappling with a situation regarding financial targets for the year covering the period 1994-1995. The company's year end is March 31.
In their interim statement the company warned revenues might be adversely affected in the period, by changing market conditions.
Hongkong Telecom, in an internal bulletin, for January states the latest forecasts received at the end of December indicated that Hongkong Telecom would fall short of its target for 1994-1995.
This is financial information being made available to staff. It came after a public statement in November which was meant to put the investors in the picture about prospects for the group in the remainder of the financial period.
