Shareholder activists yesterday forced Beauforte Investors chairman Chiu Tao to deny that the company was under investigation by the Commercial Crime Bureau over controversial deals which have drained the company of its HK$404 million cash holdings.
The activists were, however, blocked once again in their bid to censure Beauforte's management for spending HK$290 million on four floors of an office building in Jinan, Shandong province and HK$114 million on securities.
An extraordinary general meeting (EGM) at the Regal Hotel in Causeway Bay was adjourned indefinitely before the main business on the agenda could get under way.
That was a repeat of what happened at an earlier shareholder requisitioned EGM on August 29 when Mr Chiu called a vote on a proposal to adjourn the meeting.
The fresh adjournment prompted the management's fiercest critic, an elderly man surnamed Cheung, to shout out at the meeting: 'Is it reasonable? The whole of Hong Kong will be laughing at the board of directors.'
The activists believe that the shareholders proposing the adjournments are linked to the management, though Beauforte spokesman Andrew Fung Wai-kwong denied this.