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SCMP Reporter

SITTING in the Raffles Grill room in Singapore's most famous hotel last week, Edmund Cheng allowed himself to indulge in a glass of red wine. 'It is the New Year,' he said.

   There is no suggestion from his relaxed manner that he is only days away from clinching one of the biggest deals of his career, Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway Corporation's development of the Kowloon station.

   Winning the HK$7.7 billion project opens a new chapter for Wing Tai, the Singapore-based company Mr Cheng runs. It also marks a dramatic return home, for Mr Cheng is part of the Hong Kong Chengs, a family that includes Edgar Cheng, chairman of the stock exchange.

   Pushing ahead with the deal is also powerful testament to Mr Cheng's view that any suggestion Singapore is gleefully waiting to profit from any misfortune in Hong Kong is way off beam.

  'The two centres complement each other,' he says, and points out that Singapore has too much invested in the territory to wish to see it hit hard times.

   Its businessmen, government and the general public are going to have a lot more sunk into Hong Kong with the signing of the Kowloon deal. Wing Tai's partners include Temasek Holdings, the state investment company, Straits Steamship Land and Singapore Land.

   Wing Tai, a Singapore quoted group with substantial property assets on the island, began as the family garment business in Hong Kong in the mid-50s, and it still has strong links there.

   Of the five Cheng brothers, Edmund, deputy-chairman of Wing Tai, and his brother, Wai Keung, who chairs the company, are in Singapore.

  Until his appointment to the Stock Exchange Edgar Cheng was in the chair.

   The Chengs, who are connected by marriage to the empire built up by the late Sir Y.K. Pao, have a quoted vehicle in Hong Kong, USI (Holdings), run by former Wharf Holdings financial director Edward Cheng, and another in Malaysia, DNP Holdings, also in property.

   In Singapore, Wing Tai has gone some way to achieving the same sort of reputation that Sino Land has earned in Hong Kong by bidding aggressively for property when other groups have shown less confidence in what has been a softening market.

   It has also been shifting emphasis away from luxury residential projects, with which it made its name, and has moved into the more middle-class developments in the outskirts of Singapore.

   The group also plans to invest heavily in serviced apartments throughout the region, linking up with USI to use its hotels experience.

   In the year to June last, Wing Tai Holdings doubled its net earnings to S$83.9 million (about HK$457.2 million), thanks to property, which also contributed an extraordinary gain, less minority interests, of S$25.62 million.

   Garments, however, suffered from the squeeze on margins, losing S$1.6 million.

   Edmund has faith not only in Hong Kong, believing that the Chinese Government has too much face to lose by allowing the territory to languish post-1997, but is also active on the mainland.

   The MTR consortium, which also includes Worldwide Investment, the private investment company of the Pao family, has already worked together in China. Brother Edward heads up China-Singapore International, which is focusing on developments in the Chinese port of Ningbo.

   Those who know Edmund and his brothers say that while the group is aggressively expanding, profit motive is not the only driving force. Their father also instilled in them a need for service to the community, and Edmund and Wai Keung are prominent in public service in Singapore.



Kowloon deal brings Chengs back home