MING PAO directors locked the media out of their annual general meeting yesterday amid intense speculation about the future of the Chinese daily newspaper.
The directors, who also head up unlisted company CIM, came under additional fire from shareholders for the declining fortunes of CIM subsidiary South Sea Development Company.
A minority shareholder of South Sea Development said he bought shares of the company at $2 per share and now it was trading at 28 cents per share.
'Before the takeover . . . South Sea was concentrating on the textile business and it was doing quite well,' he said.
'But now they're involved in scattered property development all over the place and that's how the decline set in.' South Sea chairman Francis Lam Bing-kwan, also a director of Ming Pao Enterprise and CIM, refused to talk to the media after the annual general meetings for both South Sea and Ming Pao.
The minority shareholder said he asked during the meeting if South Sea was to be wound up and Mr Lam told him there was no such need.
In the annual report, Mr Lam said: 'The group will continue to expand its business with prudence and positive dedication and it believes that its prospects for the coming year are promising.' As at March 31, 1995, the group's bank and other borrowings amounted to about $396 million, making the debt-to-equity ratio a solid 55 per cent.
