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Ben Kwok

Fung shui property offers spring and summer dampness for just $750m

Neither HSBC nor its estate agents Knight Frank Petty have been able to shed any light on how the Fung Shui, the luxury  staff quarters at the Peak that the bank has put up for sale, got its name.

Spokeswomen for both companies politely informed Lai See that they were too young  to know much about a building  that is 52 years old.

The bank is asking about $750 million for the property at No50 Plantation Road. It contains eight units with a total of 33,222 square feet of saleable area.

In recent years, the building has seldom been fully occupied.

One reason was that the place was uncomfortably damp in spring and summer.

But more importantly, HSBC 10 years ago began phasing out expatriate allowances, where quarters were provided, in favour of housing allowances.

For the same reason, the bank earlier got rid of another posh staff building, Cloud Land at No35-37 Plantation Road. On redevelopment, it was turned into two big houses.

Despite the transformation, Cloud Land retained its name. Let's hope the new owners of No50 Plantation Road follow that example and continue to enjoy the good Fung Shui.

bank rides on olympic games

Lai See hears that Bank of China (Hong Kong) will sponsor an equestrian training programme in the run-up to the 2008 Summer Olympics, when Hong Kong will host the equestrian events.

The bank's deputy chief executive, Lam Yim-nam, will announce the programme for local teachers at the BOCHK Bauhinia Bowl Awards for inter-school sports.

This leaves two years in which to turn lovers of horse racing, and gambling, into lovers of horse jumping where there's not a betting window in sight. Quite a challenge.

swiss pick italy to win

More than two months ago, who would have tipped Italy, who just barely prevailed over dark horse Australia, to beat the host country and book a place in the World Cup final?

UBS, that's who. Economists at the Swiss bank's wealth management arm predicted in a report issued April 21 that Italy would be one of the finalists and wind up hoisting the trophy on Sunday. The last part of the prediction remains to be seen, of course.

However, UBS didn't get everything right. It also tipped Brazil to be a finalist and it didn't accurately forecast any of the match-ups in the final 16.

It just goes to prove the old research house axiom that you're only as good as your last report.

incentive for kcrc staff

There could be some incentive for the 6,000 staff of the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corp to support the merger with MTR Corp.

The KCRC proposed a salary rise of between 1.7 and 3.3 per cent this year,  compared with MTR's more generous range - at the top end, at least - of 1.4 to 4.1 per cent. Little wonder that the KCRC staff union isn't excited about it.

It's understood that the KCRC management team, formerly led by insurgent Samuel Lai Man-hay, won't receive a cent after their failed coup attempt against chairman Michael Tien Puk-sun.



Lai see