WHAT with Wheelockgate and the mystery of the long lens, the China Building on Pedder Street would have been a good place to have had a wire tap this week. According to sources, more interesting manoeuvrings than merely industrial shenanigans are being gossiped about inside the flagship headquarters of Li Ka-shing's Cheung Kong Group. Mr Li is thought to be planning to uproot his entire office staff and relocate in a new office tower which he is developing on a Land Development Corporation project on the fringes of Central. Currently, Cheung Kong occupies the lion's share of the rather anonymous looking China Building. It is believed he would like an HQ rather more in keeping with his status as Hong Kong's top money mogul. No doubt economic considerations figure for the price-conscious Mr Li, who could get wall-to-wall carpets and a fine collection of Chinese porcelain for the rental price of his Central office. However the big question remains: was it the sky-high rents which prompted Mr Li, or the evil eye of Peter Woo? All inquiries are best addressed to a certain new newspaper located in Kowloon Bay. AHEAD of bonus payout time, it's a case of fear and loathing in the Hong Kong finance industry. Venality, avarice and greed were the adjectives being bounced around last week by those with a conscience after watching the behaviour of some of their colleagues. Despite the announcement of bonus amounts at many of the brokerages, the payments in many cases haven't actually been made. This is apparently so at Barings, where staff have been talking about little else in recent weeks. Following the departure of Barings head of research, Adrian Faure, early this year, his erstwhile colleagues have apparently been poring over the carcass of his bonus like a pack of hyenas on the Serengeti plain. Pouring unsuccessfully, it must be said since the discussion has been over who has the moral right to Mr Faure's unclaimed bonus. This is a curious argument for researchers, who will talk of zero sum games in the options markets and tell you how value is not created by circulating transfer payments in the real economy. CHINA has big plans for upgrading its infrastructure and that includes cargo handling and airport facilities. However if a decision just made by international couriers DHL is anything to go by, things still have a long way to travel. Previously the company operated its express courier service between Hong Kong and Guangzhou by an airmail service. No more. DHL had been experimenting with a truck service between the two cities and to its surprise realised that documents can be delivered more quickly and more reliably than by the Airmail service. Truck-mail is apparently not prone to the black hole phenomena known as airport baggage handlers and customs men in China.
