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Ben Kwok

rush to own a piece of icbc shows just how wealthy Hong Kong people are

If you're like Lai See,  you'd have already  visited the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing website to see if you were lucky enough to be a participant in the world's largest  initial public offering.

Never has he felt so privileged to be holding a Hong Kong identity card, which was a prerequisite for subscribing to the US$19.1 billion Industrial and Commercial Bank of China share offer.

Lai See was one of the lucky ones. Only 70 per cent of the 282,257 individuals who subscribed for a single board lot priced at HK$3,070 got what they wished for. His father, his mother-in-law and his best friend, all  three of whom were also on his application, got the minimum allocation, too but his sister was shut out because she forgot to sign the subscription.

It's at times like this that you realise just how wealthy Hong Kong people really are.

There were 969,298 applications for ICBC:

129,378 people subscribed for shares worth HK$100,000.

29,447 people subscribed for shares worth HK$1 million.

5,795 people subscribed for shares worth HK$10 million.

445 people subscribed for shares worth HK$100 million.

11 people subscribed for shares worth HK$1 billion.

3 people subscribed for HK$2.71 billion.

Lai See, who took a small punt just so he would have something to write about, hopes he can use his profits to buy himself lunch at Cafe Too at the Island Shangri-La.

history lesson

Just how well will ICBC go in its market debut today? To predict the future, we look to the past.

Our friends at Thomson Financial tell us that Bank of Communications rose 13 per cent on its first day, Bank of China  surged 15 per cent and China Merchants Bank gained 25 per cent. However, China Construction Bank did not budge from its IPO price.

If we take a broader view of all the China financial stocks that have listed in Hong Kong - which include Ping An, China Life and PICC  - not one has produced less than a 15 per cent gain since its IPO.

henderson rewards generously

Henderson Land chairman Lee Shau-kee, obviously happy about his company's record profits, has decided to reward both himself and his top lieutenants generously.

According to his latest annual report, Mr Lee was paid HK$7.27 million in the latest year, up 155 per cent from HK$2.89 million previously.

Elder son Peter Lee Ka-kit also got a 73 per cent rise to HK$7.27 million while younger son Martin Lee Ka-shing (who is reported to be tying the knot with Cathy Tsui Tsz-kay soon) got only 3 per cent more at HK$3.93 million.

The Lee family as a whole collected HK$18.6 million, up 58 per cent but still less than Mr Lee's right-hand man Colin Lam Ko-yin, who walked off with HK$21.5 million.

The two highest-paid executives were Leung Sing at HK$43.5 million, up 418 per cent and Ho Wing Fun at HK$29.7 million, up 535 per cent. Both were in at the founding of Henderson Land and  are now retired.

imperial banquet for maxim's staff

Do you have the stomach for the world's largest buffet?

Our biggest local restaurant and catering chain, Maxim's Group, celebrating its 50th anniversary, held 15 banquets over four days for its 12,800 staff members. It served up a total of 560 different dishes from its Chinese restaurants, fast-food outlets, cake shops, Genki Sushi and Starbucks.

A breakdown shows that the big feed included 18 soups, 47 appetisers, 33 salads and snacks, 63 dim sum dishes, 24 barbecued and soyed items, 30 noodle and rice dishes, 101 hot dishes, 48 different types of sushi, 24 desserts, 113 bakery products and moon cakes and 34 varieties of drinks and fruits.

Maxim's has asked the Guinness Book of Records people to certify that it surpassed the previous record of 510 dishes set by the Bayer company at a buffet dinner in the United States.



Lai See