Lai See feels it is our duty, nay, our calling, to remind investors of the dangers of over-inflated asset prices during runaway stock market bubbles. That's right, we are talking about the Internet boom. Back in the dim distant past, Hong Kong was riding high on the technology superhighway. Those with money made even more money using well thought-out business plans and solid fundamentals. Renaming your ballpoint pen manufacturing enterprise TeKnOwRite and claiming to have signed a contract with Microsoft's stationary department was enough to bump a share price up by 20 per cent.
Perhaps even more crucial was the 'connected transaction' strategy. A favourite among many Hong Kong-listed companies, this involves selling your privately owned core assets (a desktop PC running Windows 97 and a spotty university drop-out) to a listed company of which you were a major shareholder for a truckload of cash.
Which brings us to our point. Back in 2000, Jim Mellon, former non-executive chairman of Regent Pacific, sold his online retailing business to Regent for US$80 million. Yesterday we received a copy of the group's results for the year to March 31.
Sales from Internet retailing totalled US$15,000.
hasty and empty exit
The quick departure of Antony Leung Kam-cheung meant the former financial secretary didn't even have time to clear his desk.