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Ben Kwok

Tycoons receive early Easter gift from grateful HSBC
After a dismal six months, some  tycoons received an early Easter gift from HSBC Holdings.
A month ago, property tycoons such as Henderson Land Development chairman Lee Shau-kee, Cheung Kong (Holdings) chairman Li Ka-shing and New World Development chairman Cheng Yu-tung pledged support for HSBC's US$17.7 billion  rights issue, giving the bank a  confidence boost by subscribing to between US$200 million and US$300 million of the issue at HK$28 each.
As it turned out, HSBC secured an overwhelming 97 per cent support from its shareholders, leaving the underwriting syndicate of Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Cazenove and HSBC with a handsome US$412 million of underwriting fee.
 The tycoons, who acted as sub-underwriters to the underwriting syndicate, were told this week they would not be allotted any HSBC rights shares but would still receive the same sub-underwriting fee, a standard industry practice.
Mr Lee, who pledged to subscribe to US$300 million shares, should have his underwriter hand him a cheque of US$5.25 million. Mr Li and Mr Cheng too received multimillion dollar cheques by promising to sub-underwrite the issue.
More goodbyes
Seems to be the season of goodbyes for outgoing Citic Pacific managing director Henry Fan Hung-ling. He has also resigned as vice-chairman of Cathay Pacific, where he was the longest-serving director for 16 years from October 13, 1992 (except for a three-month period between March and June in 1996).
Cathay said Mr Fan had no disagreements with the board and his resignation was only due to his Citic resignation.
Mr Fan submitted his resignation from Citic on Wednesday soon after boss Larry Yung Chi-kin tendered his, ending a 22-year partnership  that corporate activist David Webb  says was as close as 'Batman and Robin'.
Executive pay cuts at Ping An
 It wasn't too long ago that Ping An Insurance (Group) would lead Chinese companies in handing out the most generous executive pay cheques. But after a disastrous year that saw profit almost wiped out by its Fortis investments, salaries of Ping An's top management were halved to below 70 million yuan (HK$79.5 million) last year.
Chairman Peter Ma Mingzhe chose not to receive a penny for his work last year after receiving a record 66.16 million yuan in 2007. Chief executive Louis Cheung Chi-yan's pay was reduced 80 per cent to 9.54 million yuan. Executive vice-president Dominic Leung Ka-kui's pay was cut  83 per cent to 7.93 million yuan. The only exception was Ping An Bank president Richard Jackson, who topped the pay list with 19.93 million yuan, down just 20 per cent, the lowest cut among directors.  He received his pay in euros, however.
Less pain at Cheung Kong
Unlike Ping An, executive pay has been more stable at  Cheung Kong (Holdings). Even as the firm reported 44 per cent less profit last year, its directors got more or less the same salary they did the year before.
Managing director Victor Li Tzar-kuoi received HK$45.63 million, up 1 per cent. Six of his fellow directors were paid between HK$18.3 million and HK$19.8 million, with four directors seeing a slight salary deduction not exceeding 3 per cent.
That was way better than the four Hutchison Whampoa directors who saw an average 10 per cent decline in salary and bonus, led by group managing director Canning Fok Kin-ning, who was paid HK$133.3 million.
CKI goes high-octane
Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings has also somewhat surprised its shareholders by featuring a Formula One race car and its team members on its annual report cover. 
Apparently Li Ka-shing's toll road and power firm was trying to show it maintained a steady performance in a competitive environment thanks to team work. When a confused Lai See checked with the company, we were assured that it had no plans to branch out into the F1 business.



Lai See