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Looking for company while floating on cloud nine

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OBSERVANT readers will have noticed that everything happening in the Lai See initial public offering is remarkably similar to events in the wicky-wacky world of Hong Kong corporate life.

We have trawled some of the finest minds in Hong Kong corporate finance in search of the gems on which to base our tales and we also spoke to Willie Phillips, managing director of Salomon Brothers Hong Kong.

There was no way to include one of his stories in the Lai See float tale, but it is simply too good not to use at all.

In the heady days of 1972-73 when the Hang Seng Index soared above 1,700 points, you didn't have to have much of a company to hold an initial public offering - in fact about all you needed was a prospectus and a good idea.

And a lecturer at Hong Kong Chinese University by the name of Professor Loh Shiu-chang had just that.

Broadcast TV had recently come to the territory and roofs all over town were sprouting aerials. But the local toughs and triad-wannabes were skinning people to the tune of $500 a throw for the pleasure of having an aerial on their own roof.

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