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adam cheng series debut returns to haunt market

Adam Cheng Siu-chau has struck again.

Hong Kong brokers tremble every time the actor is scheduled to appear in a new television drama series, the debut of which tends to coincide with a market fall.

And sure enough, Cheng's new The Conqueror's Story aired last night after the market fell 197.1 points, or 1.51 per cent.

According to market pundits, over the past 12 years Cheng's new television dramas have intriguingly coincided with market downturns nine times out of 10.

Playing one of his more famous characters, 'Crab Ting', in  1992, Cheng was credited for a 20 per cent fall over a three-month period.

And in March this year, when Cheng's Blade Heart series debuted, the market peaked and tumbled 10 per cent over six weeks. Although  it gradually recovered through the summer, it is still down 5 per cent from its March peak.

While Lai See is no fortune-teller, he is a fan of American major league baseball. And if the Boston Red Sox, who are now just two games from ending 'The Curse of the Bambino' (aka Babe Ruth) and winning their first World Series in 86 years, can 'reverse the curse', then maybe Cheng can overcome the odds as well.

So buy, buy, buy - and remember that you read it here first.

hard day's night

More than three-quarters of a century under his belt, and 76-year-old 'Hong Kong superman' Li Ka-shing is still a workaholic.

In an interview published at the weekend in the Mail on Sunday, 3UK chief executive Bob Fuller  revealed that his bosses - Canning Fok Kin-ning and ultimately Mr Li - hardly ever take holidays.

'Yes, [Mr Li] is a workaholic. And so am I,' Mr Fuller said, adding that he and his supreme leader 'share an ethos' of loyalty.

'It is a very loyal organisation,'  he said. 'To those who share the company ethos, it is very loyal in return.'

Lai See understands that Mr Li at least works a reasonable 9am to 6pm schedule,  helping perhaps to explain his longevity.

No such luck for closer-to-the-ground Mr Fok, who with operations to oversee in 42 countries, must have a punishing overnight conference-call schedule.

food for thought

If the way to a journalist's heart is through his or her stomach, Hunan Satellite TV has a media relations problem on its hands.

Yesterday the company held a 'lunchtime' briefing followed by a variety show. The whole affair began at 12.30 - only for more than 100 journalists and media industry reps to be told they would have to wait, it being rude for them to eat while chief executive Ouyang Changlin  & Co were talking and performers performing.

Sixty very long minutes later reporters - who by this time were under pressure to get back to their offices - were finally allowed their four-course Chinese banquet, which they wolfed down in record time.

Not a good way to win friends and influence people, Mr Ouyang.

small fortunes

Congratulations to the seven Hong Kong-listed companies which made Fortune magazine's list of 'the 100 best smaller-sized companies'.  It's a mouthful of a prize we know, but still no mean feat. The companies, all with annual sales of less than US$1 billion, were selected on the basis that they earned at least a 5 per cent return on capital each year for at least five years.

Shares in two of the seven - H share Anhui Conch and red chip China Pharmaceutical - have fallen 12 per cent and 24 per cent this year, while the other five have gained 4 to 35 per cent.

Cyber spaced

Corporate  governance activist David Webb has challenged the Hong Kong government to publish Cyberport's accounts.

'How can you have accountability without accounts?' he wrote yesterday, arguing there can be no justification for shielding from view the accounts of publicly owned assets.

Cyberport's public relations department declined to return our calls for comment. Kind of reinforces Mr Webb's point, doesn't it?



Lai See