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Howard Winn

We are now well into the New Year but haven't had a chance to mull over 2010. We are far too humble to give out awards, but we feel there have been a few alternative-type situations during the course of the year that are worth drawing attention to. 
Still more to lose after top job is gone
HSBC tops our list of corporate cock-ups for the way Stuart Gulliver 'seamlessly' replaced Michael Geoghegan as the bank's chief executive.
Geoghegan (below), who apparently felt he was in with a chance for the chairman's job, is  now sunning himself in the Caribbean, having undertaken a bet to lose 20kg before participating in the New York marathon in November.
Nothing but the truth
Another of the year's highlights occurred in May when Li Tuchun, founder of collapsed yogurt maker Taizinai, threatened to report the South China Morning Post to the  mainland police for writing that the company had gone into provisional liquidation. However, the threat  was  overtaken by events when Li himself was  detained for, as one mainland publication put it, 'absorption of public funds'. The Taizini case was also notable for the loss of the US$73 million investment made only two years previously by Actis,  Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.
Look poor, act poor
Our usual plaudits to the government for miscalculating the size of the budget surplus. It usually gets this wrong by a mile, but its estimates for fiscal 2009 proved spectacularly wrong even by its own woeful standards. Having estimated a HK$39.9 billion deficit in 2008, this turned into a surplus of HK$13.8 billion. This unexpected  largesse was to prove an embarrassment for the government. While it  happily spends billions covering  the city in concrete, it is reluctant to commit to any meaningful improvement in welfare payments. Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah  ended up looking like a tight-fisted Father Christmas - with a sack full of presents but reluctant to give them away.
Hear, hear
China Strategic Holdings  is worthy of note for its futile optimism in thinking it would be able to purchase AIG's Taiwanese unit Nan Shan Life.  This was despite the sustained and deafening sound of 'no' from Taiwan's MPs and media. One reason for their apparent 'tin' ear could be the millions in bonuses to be made by China Strategic's chairman Fred Ma Si-hang  and chief executive Raymond Or Ching-fai.  
 Interestingly, Chinatrust  has recently bid US$3 billion, followed by  Cathay Financial's  US$2.7 billion. Both are some way in advance of China Strategic's US$2.5 billion.
Some saving grace?
Li Ka-shing deserves a mention for his, albeit inadvertent, furthering of the discussion on the supernatural or religion, depending on your point of view. We are referring to the debate that erupted when a priest likened him to the devil. The devil in many cultures and religions is regarded as the personification of evil.
 Whilst many disagree with much of what Li does, this judgment did seem somewhat harsh and prompted much discussion within the church and the local community. The upshot is that it is not okay to liken Li to the devil.
Do the math, guys
The accolade of cock-up of the year must go to the Lands Department  with the revelation that, during the course of redeveloping the former Marine Police  headquarters in Tsim Sha Tsui, Cheung Kong (Holdings) managed to expand the gross floor area by some 30 per cent without having to pay for it. It thus netted a windfall of HK$1.5 billion. Needless to say, no one in the Lands Department has fallen on their sword for such an egregious error.
Get on the roller coaster
Richard Li Tzar-kai was as usual unable to keep out of the headlines, with his house raided by the police early in the year along with other residences and business connected with the failed HK$15.9 billion attempt to privatise PCCW in 2009. The privatisation was eventually derailed when the Securities and Futures Commission  won an appeal court ruling that the shareholder vote that had initially approved the deal had been rigged.
Despite the police activity, no charges have been brought.
Elsewhere, it emerged that Li was planning to involve PCCW with efforts by PineBridge Investments  - his private equity firm - to hang on to its stake in debt-laden Bulgarian telecommunications firm Vivacom.  It remains to be seen whether PCCW's long-suffering shareholders will be dragged into the Bulgarian venture, though they must be wondering what to expect next from Li.



Lai See