A handful of Wing Shan staff get listing bonanza
THE start of trading tomorrow of Wing Shan International will be particularly welcome for its employees who, like those of other firms joining the market, have been given preferential access to their company's share issue.
What is unusual in Wing Shan's case is that, according to the prospectus, as few as seven employees may be eligible for these shares.
While the rest of Hongkong scrambled for Wing Shan shares - which were 227 times oversubscribed - employees had an easy ride.
Ten per cent of the issue was set aside for them.
Only employees in Hongkong were eligible to apply, and the prospectus states that 45 of the group's 52 employees are based in China.
This means that employees who run the power station in Foshan, Guangdong province, which is the company's sole asset, will not enjoy any bonus from the company's flotation.
Wing Shan shares were offered at $1.02 a share, and brokers expect them to start trading at around $1.80.
In contrast to their mainland colleagues, Hongkong employees will share a profit of around $3.5 million.
The bonus warrants will increase their profits further.
When mainland carmaker Denway Investment was listed in February, employees of Guangzhou Peugeot, which accounts for more than half of the company's profits, were also barred from the employee share scheme.
It would be interesting to know more about the arrangements for employee shares and the rationale behind them on this and other issues where big profits can be made.
However, the only information that must be provided is whether the employee shares were all taken up.
Not surprisingly, in Wing Shan's case they all were.
