The Link Reit's board and its chairman, Paul Cheng Ming-fun, are in an unenviable position between the proverbial rock and a hard place. They are facing increasingly aggressive protests by public-estate shopkeepers to halt rent increases.
On the other side, they relented last month and appointed the representative of a British-based hedge fund as a non-executive director, who will no doubt demand greater returns, faster.
That appointment was preceded by months of skirmishes between the board and British-based The Children's Investment Fund Management (TCI), which has accumulated an 18.35 per cent interest in the city's first and largest reit. The British hedge fund has reportedly tried to remove Mr Cheng for repeatedly ignoring its demands for board representation and a more aggressive investment strategy.
Meanwhile, estate shopkeepers are calling for strikes to halt rent increases. On Monday, 58 shopkeepers from the Chung Fu market in Tin Shui Wai said they would join forces with other protesters - some 40 vendors in a Chai Wan estate market - to fight what they see as exploitation.
Most of the Chung Fu protesters have had rent increases of 20 to 30 per cent imposed on them, and one meat store is facing a 50 per cent rise to HK$45,000 a month. Already, six Chung Fu shopkeepers have been taken to court for illegal occupation - because they are paying only their old rents.
It's a fact of life that commercial rents have jumped phenomenally in recent years. The Link comprises 180 shopping centres and car parks on public housing estates formerly managed by the Housing Authority. It cannot call itself a publicly listed corporation answerable to shareholders without making its rents reflect market conditions.
However, it has always been implicitly understood that, given the reit's unique property history, its board would have to display far greater corporate and social responsibility than a normal private-property company.