Top executives put paid to speculation about publisher's possible mainland ties
In a town where so many leading newspaper titles are closely associated with their family proprietors - the Ma family's Oriental Daily News, Jimmy Lai Chee-ying's Apple Daily and the Kuoks' South China Morning Post - the Hong Kong Economic Times has long been a somewhat mysterious exception.
With the paper characterised by a unique blend of no-nonsense financial reporting and a pro-Beijing editorial line, industry watchers have wondered if there was an invisible owner - perhaps from the mainland - behind it, and hoped that its parent's forthcoming initial public offering would shed some light on its ownership structure. They have been disappointed.
'We do not have any support from a mainland-based company,' Hong Kong Economic Times Holdings (HKET) chairman Lawrence Fung Siu-por said in an interview at the weekend. 'We are a Hong Kong company that started with funds of only $20 million.'
HKET, which also publishes PC magazine e-zone and recruitment paper Career Times, is hoping to raise as much as $176 million for business expansion in Hong Kong and China. Its shares will start trading on August 3.
According to HKET's prospectus, its principal shareholders include Mr Fung, non-executive director Chu Yu-lun and Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing director Leong Ka-chai, who after the listing will collectively hold a 62.74 per cent stake in the business through their Golden Rooster holding company.
'Mr Chu, Mr Leong and I have been good friends for 30 years and invested in many businesses together,' Mr Fung said. The trio's first venture, launched in 1978, was trade media and exhibition organiser Adsale Group, followed by investments in local brokerage Roctec Securities and some toy manufacturing firms.