Gold Peak set for investment pay-off

VICTOR Lo Chung-wing is undeniably an Asian visionary. He couples his work as chairman of electronics group Gold Peak Industries and two of its Singapore-listed subsidiaries with a host of public roles, both in Hong Kong and the region.

Among his many Hong Kong hats, he is deputy chairman of the Hong Kong Federation of Industries, vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Electronic Industries Association, and council member of both the Trade Development Council (TDC) and the stock exchange listing committee.

More recently, he was picked as one of three high-flying Hong Kong industrialists to represent the territory on Apec's business advisory council, along with TDC chairman Victor Fung Kwok-king and Hopewell's Gordon Wu Ying-sheung.

That is not the only thing he has in common with Mr Wu. Both evidently have a very clear vision of the wealth of business opportunities available, not just in China but also in Southeast Asia.

Both have expanded their companies aggressively into the region - and both are finding their firms burdened with debt while waiting for some of their diverse investments to pay off.

To suggest Gold Peak's financial problems are in the same league as Hopewell's would be unfair. Hopewell had HK$23.3 billion of debt as of June 1995 and is under pressure to sell a stake in its subsidiary, Consolidated Electric Power Asia (Cepa), to help generate cash to complete some of its pioneering mega-infrastructure projects in the region, most notably its Thai superhighway project.