Swire Pacific has no plans to abandon its two-class share system despite growing pressure on other Asian conglomerates with such arrangements.
'We have no plans to change the existing shareholding structure,' Swire's group public affairs manager Andrew Herdman said yesterday.
The dual-class system gives the Swire family half the total voting rights even though it owns only 28 per cent of the company.
One Swire A share is, nominally, worth five B shares. However, the B share trades at a steep discount to the more liquid A share, which is a Hang Seng Index constituent.
Majority shareholder John Swire & Sons holds 40.76 million of A shares and 1.97 billion of B shares. This gives them an overall 28.05 per cent in the company, according to Swire's most recent annual report.
With the differential between the A and B voting rights, it means John Swire's votes effectively control 50.45 per cent of the company.