Is it a sorry tale with a happy ending, or a tale made sorry by its ending? The ill-fated Bank of Credit and Commerce Hong Kong (BCCHK), which fell into liquidation in 1991, recently had some heartening news for its creditors.
Not only have they been fully repaid, they will receive a post-liquidation interest payout, a bonus unheard of in territory liquidation history.
Surprisingly, instead of being cheered by the outcome, some depositors jeer at the news. Just when the Hong Kong chapter of BCCI seems to be heading for a happy ending, another question lingers.
Creditors argue that the good payout attests to their long-held belief that the bank should not have been liquidated in the first place.
BCCHK's liquidation sets a record in the territory's corporate failure history.
Never before has a financial entity which plunged so dramatically into the disgrace of liquidation managed to pay back its creditors in full, and in as short a time as six years. Not only was BCCHK capable of repaying all its debt, but it also has HK$1 billion to pay for the liquidation bill.
The 12-year work on the collapsed Canton Trust and Commercial Bank in 1965 helped creditors secure 70 per cent of their principal. Creditors of Carrian Investment, which went bust in 1983, were paid only 43 per cent.