YOU MAY HAVE noticed that the Modern Town Redevelopment Company (MTRC) had a splendid year last year with pretax earnings up an impressive 23.4 per cent to a record $5.2 billion.
It goes to show what huge government handouts of scarce development land can do to boost a company's fortunes while at the same time modernising our urban landscape. Let us have a big hurrah here for a wonderful public effort.
Some people, however, still insist on misnaming this company.
They call it the Mass Transit Railway Corp as if its primary business were actually public transport. How odd. You might as well call Sun Hung Kai Properties a transport company because of its minor holdings in buses, ports and freight forwarding.
In fact, if you had to find proper words for the acronym MTRC you could as easily choose Male Titillation aRousal Company on the grounds, judging by station advertising displays, that it must have been established to promote women's underwear fashions.
This advertising business was actually its second biggest earnings generator after property last year, with an operating profit that, at a rough guess from the figures, was in excess of $800 million.
