Battered Internet investor Yasumitsu Shigeta has quietly ended his once much trumpeted tie-up with Richard Li Tzar-kai by disposing of his entire interest in Pacific Century CyberWorks.
Mr Shigeta, president of Tokyo-listed Internet investment company Hikari Tsushin Inc, dumped the 332.52 million shares he held in CyberWorks early this week, according to sources.
He had been gradually selling off his shares over the past couple months to avoid causing major disruptions to CyberWorks' share price, one source said.
The shares were disposed at an average price of about HK$2.10 a piece, allowing Mr Shigeta to cash in about HK$698.29 million.
However, the disposal price was 91 per cent below the price assigned to CyberWorks' shares when a US$1 billion share-swap deal was forged two years ago.
In February 2000, Mr Li and Mr Shigeta painted a rosy future for the telecommunications company when they agreed to swap a portion of personal shares in CyberWorks and Hikari to strengthen their relationship through crossholdings.
Under the arrangement, Mr Li exchanged 332.52 million CyberWorks shares, about 3.5 per cent of the company, for 510,200 Hikari shares held by Mr Shigeta.