Advertisement
Advertisement

Lai See

Ben Kwok

Standing room only for listing showdown

The press pack was in a feeding frenzy yesterday morning as lawyers for Winnie Ho Yuen-ki, the estranged sister of SJM Holdings chairman Stanley Ho Hung-sun, made their way to the High Court to argue their case for a judicial review against the casino firm's listing.

Ms Ho's legal team showed up carrying two cardboard boxes and three shopping bags full of documents related to their case, delivering them to a bewigged Martin Lee Chu-ming as he prepared himself at his counsel's podium before a standing-room-only courtroom.

One of the key points of objection to the listing presented by Mr Lee was that, because SJM is a casino operator, its listing would be 'contrary to the public interest' as gambling is illegal in Hong Kong (unless it is run by the Jockey Club).

That prompted Mr Justice Anselmo Reyes to ask: 'Are you saying that Galaxy is against the public interest?' Then he added: 'It is the judge who determines what is in the public interest.'

Discussion during the hour-long hearing ran from the finer points of English translations of Portuguese judgments from the courts of Macau ('We are not here to decide Macanese law,' said the judge) to more light-hearted banter and a few casino metaphors. Mr Justice Reyes at one point asked Mr Lee if he wanted to 'gamble' on a point of legal assertion, to which he replied: 'No, we shouldn't gamble ... it's against the public interest.'

Mr Justice Reyes is scheduled to announce the decision at 4pm today.

Let the chips fall where they may.

Let them eat cake

The way to a shareholder's heart is often through his stomach, as witnessed by the scrum that greets any decent spread laid on at annual meetings. So that's the route BOC Hong Kong has chosen to try to persuade its shareholders to receive their annual report online.

As an incentive, the bank is offering a Maxim's cakeshop coupon (12 pieces) for those who take the environmentally friendly option.

BOCHK has more than 200,000 shareholders and printed over 100,000 annual reports last year.

Sounds like a fair deal for dessert lovers.

Shops in the shopping bag

Yet more evidence of the changing spending habits of tai-tais. The latest example is Lydia Koo Chee-yung, ex-wife of Sun Hung Kai Properties former chairman Walter Kwok Ping-sheung.

Instead of going to the shops she decided to buy them, paying HK$957 million for Albion Plaza in Granville Road.

Ms Koo bought the Tsim Sha Tsui premises from three other shareholders, including her brother.

Too clever by half

Many equity analysts tend to bump up their target prices to stimulate more buying, but we have come across one who prefers to do it the opposite way.

Citi Investment Research analyst Tony Tsang reiterated his 'buy' recommendation on Henderson Land this week, while revising its target price to HK$52.89 from HK$90. Henderson closed yesterday at HK$47.05, or nearly half his previous price target, which was the most aggressive among his peers when he made it last December.

The reason he gave for the latest figure is the 10 per cent downward prediction in residential prices in the second half. However, it does beg the question: what has he been doing in the first six months?

Perfect pitch

At the other end of the scale, Morgan Stanley must have been patting itself on the back for its call on Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing. On June 23, when the counter was trading at HK$123, the US brokerage predicted the blue-chip stock would fall to HK$100 in 15 days. Yesterday, the 15th day, HKEx duly fell to HK$100 at 11.54am, before recovering to HK$101, down 5.8 per cent on the day.

Morgan Stanley's latest target for HKEx of HK$85 was announced on Monday. Unfortunately, the analysts did not give a time frame this time.

Post