Mandarin Resources has acquired a majority stake in a systems integrator that will supply a street-light monitoring and control system to CLP Holdings. The company's shareholders yesterday unanimously approved the acquisition of a 60 per cent interest in M-Star for a share-and-cash hybrid consideration of HK$16 million. M-Star, which develops system applications, recorded a loss of HK$1.1 million for the year to December 31. However, James So Yiu-cho, Mandarin Resources' chief executive, said he was confident the subsidiary could break even within a year. He said M-Star had formed a joint venture with CLP Engineering, a subsidiary of CLP Holdings, for the provision of M-Star's street-light monitoring and control system in Hong Kong and areas in southern China. 'Our agreement is exclusive. That means we will be the only supplier of such an intelligent system service [for CLP],' Mr So said. M-Star chief executive Melvyn Wong said that the contract size had yet to be finalised, adding that 'in southern China, each major city has about 100,000 street lights on average'. He said the subsidiary had also developed other network services such as fleet-management systems and intelligent-homes systems which would soon be launched. Mr So said that businesses such as the new acquisition, as well as Mandarin Resources' existing switch-board operations, constituted the core business of the company. Mandarin Resources was previously engaged in property and share-trading business. Until November last year, the company's shares had been frozen for 14 years while it was subject to a litigation tussle between the Securities and Futures Commission and the company's disgraced former major shareholder Chim Pui-chung.
