Fengshen fury fails to foil city's financial fervour Severe Tropical Storm Fengshen couldn't dampen activity in our financially vibrant city yesterday. With signal No8 still hoisted in the morning, it was business as usual for many. For anyone who thought the weather would be another obstacle to SJM Holdings' bid to persuade investors to buy a slice of its initial public offering, the company told a different story. Chief executive Ambrose So Shu-fai said the company had organised a fund managers' meeting for 7.45am. Several clients called at 7am - but not to cancel, only to ask that the meeting be put back half an hour. 'And when we arrived, the fund managers were already there, waiting to open the door for us,' said Mr So. 'So we started at 8.15am and went all the way to lunchtime.' City life started returning to normal when the signal was lowered to No3 at 11.15am, bringing a wry smile on the face of William Leung Wing-cheung, who was hosting a Hang Seng Bank press conference on post-retirement research. The bank's general manager of personal financial services and wealth management recalled another press conference that he hosted two years ago, when the typhoon signal rose from No3 to No8 by the time he had finished. Reporters who attended Sa Sa International's annual results announcement were rewarded with an umbrella for their troubles. Some firms were not so resilient. The Airport Authority cancelled its results presentation. Calls to the inquiry hotline were not returned - staff could be too busy rearranging cancelled flights - but the authority emailed its results to the media. The board of Miramar Hotel and Investment postponed the announcement of its annual results until July 8, while three other listed firms only put their annual board meetings off for 24 hours. Finally, with the cancellation of last night's Happy Valley race meeting, it means last orders at the trackside Beer Garden, one of the city's cheapest watering holes, are rescheduled for next Thursday. Yuan as inflation hedge With the yuan hitting new highs every day, have you ever thought of being paid in the mainland currency as a hedge against inflation? That's the offer Shui On Land's Vincent Lo Hong-sui has given his 100 Hong Kong expatriates working across the border. A few years ago, Mr Lo made the same offer to his Hong Kong staff working in Shanghai, when the Hong Kong dollar was weaker than the yuan. The idea then was to ensure his staff didn't worry too much about the differential between the two currencies. We don't know how many takers there were last time, but we have a pretty good idea what the result will be this time around. Citizenship row on mainland Hong Kong is not the only place having to deal with a controversy over political appointees holding overseas citizenship. Across the border, it has emerged that Zong Qinghou, general manager of Wahaha Group, was a delegate to National People's Congress from 2002 to last year, despite having been a United States green card holder since 1999. Mr Zong's US status came to light in his bitter legal dispute with French shareholder Danone. Yesterday, he said he was proud to be a Chinese and provided evidence that he obtained a green card so that he could travel in the US, where he spent no more than 40 days in each of the past 10 years. He said he had not been to the US since 2006. Greenest legislator in making At 28, Roy Tam Hoi-pong could become the greenest lawmaker in Hong Kong ... by age and political persuasion. The Green Sense founder, who has fought against wall-effect building design and paper-wasting listing prospectuses, plans to stand in the West Kowloon constituency in September's Legislative Council elections. His campaign agenda includes calling for listed companies to appoint a director responsible for environmental protection issues and for potential listing candidates to undergo an environmental impact assessment, something the mainland has introduced for certain industries. With more green ideas on the pipeline, who says David Webb has no successor?