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Denise Tsang

Meetings to approve the liquidation of companies in Tsui Tsin-tong's New China Hong Kong Group were postponed yesterday after creditors failed to show up.

 The High Court had adjourned shareholder and creditor meetings of eight principal subsidiaries until after March 1, provisional liquidator Charles Chan, Ip & Fung CPA said.

 Dates had yet to be fixed. A meeting to wind up the parent company, chaired by Mr Tsui, is scheduled to be held on March 1.

  Shareholders and creditors were scheduled to approve the voluntary liquidation of four principal subsidiaries yesterday.

 However, no creditors attended the first of a string of meetings.

 There are 94 subsidiaries under the group's eight principal subsidiaries.

 Liquidation experts said the liquidations would be automatically approved if creditors failed to show up to the rescheduled meetings.

 Jim Wardell, adviser to the provisional liquidators, said the delay made sense as most of the group's 50 shareholders were based in the mainland.

 He said the group had a deficit asset value and owed money to 12 creditors.

 He would not divulge any details of the liquidation.

 Amounts claimed by creditors who have filed court writs have already passed more than $100 million.

 Creditors include International Bank of Asia, Dao Heng Bank and Irison Development.

 Mr Wardell said Mr Tsui held less than 1 per cent of the group via joint-venture companies and was not involved in any daily operations.

 Mr Tsui had never guaranteed any loans for the group or its subsidiaries, he said.

 Well-known for his extensive connections with Beijing, Mr Tsui is believed to have suffered financially as a result of the regional economic crisis.

 He has been facing civil claims for at least $100 million from creditors including ING Bank. The group's demise represents a loss of face for its high-profile founding shareholders, including Mr Tsui.

 New China was founded in 1993 with $400 million of seed money by a consortium of leading Hong Kong, mainland and Singapore investors as a showcase for mainland economic development.

 Founders included Appleton Co, a company linked to Li Ka-shing, China Resources (Holdings), Century City and Shougang Holdings (HK).

 Despite the group's sale of loss-making broking arm New China Hong Kong Financial Services to Century City International Holdings last September, the group was hit by other ill-fated investments.

 Mr Wardell said investments in securities and mainland joint-ventures had turned into bad loans in the wake of the Asian financial downturn and had caused the group to become insolvent.



Creditors fail to show