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'Lexus' leung's celebrity still has plenty of mileage in beijing

Antony 'Lexus' Leung Kam-chung appears to be back in the bankers' club. It's more than a year since the scandal-tainted former financial secretary stepped down and Lai See can reveal that his public rehabilitation will be a roundtable organised by the Beijing municipal government in Hong Kong.

Mr Leung will join banking grandees such as HSBC's Raymond Or Ching-fai, Standard Chartered's Peter Wong Tung-shun and top men from Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank for the eighth Beijing-Hong Kong Economic Co-operation Seminar. The event is partly a promo for business opportunities at the Beijing Olympics.

The happy bankers will hobnob with Beijing mayor Wang Qishan, with happy chatter no doubt on the impending opening of the domestic yuan banking sector to foreign players.

Mr Leung was always a favourite in Beijing but Lai See wondered why for such a prestigious event the municipal bosses chose a former Hong Kong financial secretary rather than the present hail fellow and well met incumbent. We were a little surprised at the response but perhaps, in this celebrity-obsessed age, it's just a sign of the times.

'He is more famous,' the Beijing government spokesman told us.

air of indignation for fund managers

Fund managers, as everyone knows, sit at the top of the food chain in the equity capital markets business, getting feted and ever-eager brokers catering to their every whim. Those who think this a shocking state of affairs will be pleased to hear that UBS apparently does not subscribe to this set of rules.

Flown up to Dalian recently for a presentation, money managers were left smarting after they were stuck back in economy class while UBS analysts and bankers lived it up at the front in business class.

'I just wonder why I am paying business class for these guys who are supposed to serve us [the fund managers] while I am only getting an economy class,' grizzled one discontented manager to Lai See.

Lai See - as one who always turns to the right on planes - can sympathise.

corporate compassion a recycled idea

Few firms blather more about corporate social responsibility than HSBC. Among other things, the goody two shoes of Hong Kong's corporate bigwigs request that stationery suppliers  box pencils in recycled cardboard rather than fancy packaging. So Lai See is pleased to hear of an earthier tale of charity from Hang Seng Bank.

Two years after Hang Seng Bank made a maiden  $200,000 profit back in 1935, the then-humble money changer donated part of its profit to build a mainland primary school. Ten years ago, four Hang Seng founders set up the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation with a  $400 million endowment for mainland scientists.

Ho Tim, 95, and Sir Lee Quo-wei, 85, both founders of Hang Seng, were honoured in a  ceremony to recognise their contributions to Hang Seng. Chairman David Eldon presented a carved wooden nameplate to the two seniors who served a combined 128 years at the bank.

'They set a strong example of sharing with the community well before the notion of corporate social responsibility became popular in today's business world,' Mr Eldon said yesterday.

We wonder how impressed the old boys are with CSR committees and green stationery procurement programmes.

economic mojo underperforms

Economists have a hard job,  always struggling to find something to say or, worse,  owning up to a duff call. Lai See was impressed by explanations from Lehman Brothers for pulling its bullish  call on United States growth. You see the economy has 'lost its mojo', while there has also been a re-emergence of 'psychological funk'. Or perhaps guys, it might be Dr Evil's fault?

Keep them guessing at end of the line

We are pleased to put Lai See's IR Index spotlight on PCCW (a firm that did very well by original shareholders in an obscure telecom equipment maker called Tricom, but miserably by everyone else) which unveils interim results tomorrow.

The IR index tells us that PCCW has a less than spectacular record in preparing investors for its numbers. Six out of its last eight announcements have produced share price declines, on two occasions by as much as 6.5 per cent.

The company has a reputation for throwing up nasty surprises. This week, however, the  firm's stock rallied following an apparent leak that China Netcom was set to pay hugely over the odds for a stake in its fixed-line network. Next to that inflated expectation by investors, we wonder how the possibility of a few pennies in dividends will play out.



Lai See