bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Ben Kwok

Beijing Games opening-day tickets too hot yet so scarce

Forget  Country Garden, China Molybdenum  or China Citic Bank  if you are chasing the hottest public offering - Beijing Olympic Games tickets are where you want to be.

The chances of getting an opening ceremony ticket, for example, are no better than winning one of the top three Mark Six prizes.

As some 62,000  opening-day tickets are available for sale  from 150 yuan to 5,000 yuan each,  Hong Kong,  being part of China but not classified as China in the ticket sales, is reported to be awarded 200 tickets, 40 of which would be available for public sale.

With  about eight million people living in Hong Kong, the chance of any resident being able to attend the Games' first day  is 0.0005 per cent, lower than the chances of hitting a big jackpot in the Hong Kong lottery.

Oil bosses look underpaid

If there is an industry in the mainland whose directors' salaries are disproportionate to their performance, it  is the oil sector.

Last year, the country's No1 oil and gas producer, PetroChina, pulled in a record profit of 142.22 billion yuan  but rewarded its 12 directors with only a combined 5.57 million yuan  payout.

Chairman Chen Geng  made 797,000 yuan,  a less than 1 per cent rise on the previous year. His pay is less than any directors at CNOOC, which paid close to one million yuan each  to its six non-executive directors.

The country's No2 oil giant, Sinopec, which made a respectable 53.91 billion yuan  in profit last year, raised its total directors'  pay by almost 60 per cent  to 4.75 million yuan, still a rather thin number.

The  highest-paid executive was president  Wang Tianpu (below, right),  who made 616,000 yuan.  Chairman Chen Tonghai  (left) has received no salary for at least two years because he is paid by the controlling shareholder of Sinopec.

In this light, CNOOC chairman and chief executive Fu Chengyu appeared to be overpaid.  He made 9.63 million yuan,  up 45 per cent,  thanks to the appreciation in the value of his share options.

CNOOC made a 30.92 billion yuan profit last year  but its top executive's salary was only slightly lower than the  pay of the whole board  of PetroChina and Sinopec combined.

Others bulge in bounty

Executive Council member Henry Fan Hung-ling  is increasingly unlikely to quit his job and join the cabinet, and here's  why.

The Citic Pacific group managing director last year was awarded HK$43.43 million,   a 74 per cent increase to celebrate a record year in which Citic  doubled its profit to HK$8.27 billion.

Chairman Larry Yung Chi-kin  decided to award his executives with a HK$150 million  discretionary bonus, of which he took home HK$40 million. His salary topped HK$51.21 million,  rising 77 per cent  last year.

His son, Carl Yung Ming-jie, saw the biggest salary increase among fellow directors with a 331 per cent  jump to HK$8.38 million,  thanks to a HK$5 million bonus.

Sign of good things to come

PCCW can be generous, too. The Richard Li Tzar-kai-held telecommunications company gave its 14,000 employees discretionary bonuses of  1.08  to 1.7 months each.

Despite its modest amount, this bonus payment is the biggest since Mr Li took over the former telephone monopoly in 2000 and came soon after  he made clear that he was determined to keep the company.

The best is yet to come, perhaps.

Charity by another means

How to turn reading annual reports into charity?

China Telecom invited its shareholders and reporters to fill in a short survey with the aim of improving its next annual report. The company will donate HK$50 for each completed form for a maximum of HK$100,000.

We are happy to kill two birds with one stone.



Economists rebuke Trump’s currency claims, explain why Beijing wants yuan stable

Hong Kong boosts yuan hub status by expanding mainland China bond collateral initiative

Hong Kong’s finance sector to benefit from AI, China opening, Asia wealth: think tank

Standard Chartered to open sixth Hong Kong wealth centre, increase headcount: Mary Huen

Yuan

Lai See