bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

SCMP Reporter

THE gunslingers over at the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) have a wonderful problem: they've got too much money.

  It's a problem that Hamish Macleod has as well - the stamp-duty take on the booming market turnover means his carefully crafted budget deficit has turned into a boring old surplus.

  But the SFC, which is partly funded by a 0.02 per cent transaction levy on share trades, already had lots of cash and it's getting more embarrassing by the day.

  According to our calculations, by the end of October, seven months into the SFC's financial year, they had made $147 million from the tiny clip they take on every stock trade, plus maybe $20 million from the futures market.

  This sum, only one of their three sources of income, is greater than all of last year's expenditure - and we've got more than four months of trading still to go, including the traditional Chinese New Year rally.

  Even before this bonanza started, in March, the commission had more than a quarter of a billion in the bank.

  So the SFC people have been trying hard to give cash away. They refused this year's $70 million government grant, and cut their take on stock trades from 0.025 per cent to 0.02 per cent in July. But still it floods in.

  Of course, they take part of the credit for the booming trade. They impress visiting US merchant bankers over lunch, who then go home and throw money at Hong Kong.

  The SFC will need this cash mountain if the market crashes, so we suggest it buys some shares to ensure a good return.

  With all that market knowledge the SFC should be able to get an amazing return on its investment.

   Fung shy man    ONE possibility for the SFC portfolio could be Evergo Holdings, whose chairman Joseph Lau made a public appearance yesterday.

   Joseph, who incidentally collects Swatch watches, was out and about because Evergo and Chinese Estates shareholders were voting on the merger master plan unveiled some months ago.

  Remember in April 1992 an attempt to privatise Chinese Estates was aborted amid allegations that a shareholder vote had been rigged.

  Yesterday, Joseph was demanding that no one take pictures, for the simple reason that he didn't like his photo taken - an aversion which meant he even avoided family snaps, he said.

  Just to underline the point, he turned out in a casual shirt with no tie, so even if we had taken his photo, we couldn't print it: our belief is that a man should be seen either wearing a suit or totally naked.

  He was asked whether his aversion to photos was because of superstition - some fung shui believers warn that a photo will steal your spirit - but he denied this.

  And to prove how little he cared for fung shui, he pointed out that the Lau brothers' mightiest edifice, the Entertainment Building in Central, was designed by a Westerner and was therefore built with complete disregard for fung shui.

  Strange. Isn't the main entrance at an angle to the street - a fung shui trademark?   He added that despite offers he's received to buy the building - the strange block that looks like a 50-storey cathedral on Queen's Road Central - he won't sell for ''sentimental reasons''.

  Joseph was also heard complaining that his company had been misunderstood by investors.

   Hard Dunn by    MAYBE you weren't at the Trade Development Council dinner on Tuesday night, so here's Baroness Dunn's story about an earlier visit to London:   On one evening, I had arranged to meet up with Sir S.Y. Chung and other members of Exco for a Chinese meal in Soho after a visit to Number 10.

  I dressed smartly for the evening, took a taxi to Gerrard Street, and found that I was first to arrive.

  It was a warm evening. I waited on a street corner under a lamp-post in my high heels swinging my handbag.

  After being circled once or twice by some very good-looking men, a Middle Eastern gentleman came up to me and began to talk, when Sir S.Y. got out of his taxi half a block away.

  Seeing what was happening, Sir S.Y. broke into a run waving the GBP5 note he was about to pay the taxi driver and shouting all the way: ''She's mine! She's mine!''.

   Trend-splitting   CHINA Light and Power is the latest company to give a bonus issue, with a one-for-five bonus share issue announced yesterday.

  Never slow to take up a trend, Lai See today announces a one-for-six bonus issue. Normally, this diary runs six times a week, but after the bonus issue we're going up to seven.

  Monday's column is being split into two parts, each exactly half the length of the usual column.

   Washed up   THE Franchising '93 show and the Money '93 show are in the same hall in the Convention Centre, and both opened yesterday.

  Go through the main doors and the first thing you see is a giant stand full of industrial washing machines.

  It's a clothes-laundering franchise. When we saw it we assumed it was a money-laundering franchise, and were ready to sign on the dotted line.

   Not re-useable    THE Landmark is full of posh boutiques, and not many people know about the Wellcome supermarket in the basement.

  If you go down there, you'll find a big sign near the checkout saying: ''Environmentally friendly bags''.

  It's hung over the Durex.



Commission with a Secure Future