Disgraced tycoon James Ting has resurfaced for the first time in two years with an attempt to block the planned sale of the listing shell of his bankrupt Akai Holdings. Mr Ting has not been seen in Hong Kong since he disappeared from view in late 2000, leaving behind the biggest corporate collapse in Hong Kong's history. It emerged yesterday that the Akai chairman - working through his lawyers - had voted his shares against a proposed scheme of arrangement that would result in the company becoming a backdoor listing vehicle for casual clothing retailer Hang Ten Group Holdings. It is the first sign that Mr Ting remains actively interested in Akai, once the centre of a vast global empire and now the subject of a fraud investigation. Police, liquidators and creditors have been anxious to talk to the Shanghai-born businessman, but his whereabouts remain unknown. Mr Ting voted his 109.82 million shares by proxy against the backdoor-listing proposal at a meeting on Monday, Akai's liquidators disclosed in an announcement yesterday. That would be sufficient to block the proposal - which requires the support of 75 per cent of shareholder votes - but the liquidators have applied to the Supreme Court of Bermuda to have Mr Ting's votes disallowed. Discounting Mr Ting's votes, 94.73 per cent of Akai shares were voted in favour of the proposal. It is unclear why Mr Ting opposes the proposal. The scheme would see Akai's existing shareholders receive shares in Hang Ten worth a token HK$1.86 million, based on net asset value. If the scheme is voted down, Akai will be delisted in any case and shareholders will get nothing. A spokesman for the liquidators, insolvency practitioners RSM Nelson Wheeler, declined to comment yesterday. Consumer electronics firm Akai, formerly known as Semi-Tech (Global), owed creditors more than US$1 billion when it was ordered to be wound up in August 2000, having months earlier posted a US$1.72 billion loss, a Hong Kong record. The company was later found to have been stripped to a shell. Books and records were missing, while control of the company's entire business had been handed over to another listed company, Grande Holdings, without the knowledge of the stock exchange or shareholders.
