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SCMP Reporter

SHUN Tak Holdings is one of the world's best small companies.

   This remarkable tribute to Stanley Ho is contained within the latest edition of Forbes magazine.

   The magazine is always big on lists, and this time it's producing lists of the world's best small companies, with Shun Tak sitting comfortably among the top 100 in developed markets outside the United States.

   We're grateful to the folks over at Kerry Securities for faxing over this interesting list, which includes six Hong Kong-listed members: ASM Pacific, Cafe de Coral, Shun Tak, Star Paging, Varitronix and World Houseware.

   Our informant at Kerry described the choices as 'surprising', which no one could doubt.

   We've got no complaints about Varitronix and ASM, but neither has anyone else, which is why they are both pricey stocks.

   What is perhaps more surprising is the picture the list gives to the world outside Hong Kong.

   After all, World Houseware may be a fine company, but plastic place-mats hardly rank alongside genetic engineering and multimedia as the hot new businesses for the 21st century.

   Cafe de Coral is facing a textbook example of a margin squeeze, and its shares have gone from $6 to $2.475 in 12 months.

   As for Shun Tak, perhaps it is best to say that it has come under regulatory scrutiny and leave it at that.

   It's intriguing to think that readers in the US will be reading this stuff and thinking it's hot info.

   Maybe they should have put China Motor Bus in the list as a signal not to take it too seriously.

  Away win  THERE is one interesting name in the list.

   It is a company called Tommy Hilfinger, which is categorised as a Hong Kong company even though it is listed in New York.

   It's an upmarket clothing firm. And like another interesting firm - called Radica, which makes electronic gambling games - despite its substantial Hong Kong operations it has decided that listing in the US is a smarter move.

   Tommy Hilfinger is on a prospective price-earnings ratio of about 22, and its shares are up 50 per cent this year, helped by the strong brand name in the US.

   Not many Hong Kong-listed stocks can boast this - sadly.

   Little by little  THE salaries of the directors running H-share companies never cease to amaze.

   The latest to float - literally - is Shanghai Haixing Shipping Co. This is an outfit valued at $1.6 billion.

   There are seven executive directors and three non-executive directors.

   Total payout last year was 227,000 yuan (about HK$205,435). This works out at $2,400 a month each.

   Mind, they are better paid than those at Kunming Machine Tools, another Chinese industrial flagship, which last year paid its directors $1,400 a month each on average.

   So for the price of an amah, a resident of Mid-Levels could have a shipping expert or a machine tool director to do their washing up.

  Far-fetched  THE latest exotic raw material from Hong Kong watchers in London is that the territory is about to start a capital outflow tax.

   Now before the various bankers in town start making an assault on the Hong Kong dollar peg, it's probably wise to say that this seems rather unlikely.

   Just as well. Even if Sir Hamish made a joke about it while sitting on a beach in Phuket, the peg would snap like a cheap toothpick within 30 minutes, and by the time the legislation was in place, the only cash left in Hong Kong would be notes worth $10 and below.

   What is perhaps more interesting is that we heard this rumour from a serious financial manager, who reckoned that with 1997 approaching, it was pretty much the only logical step to stop capital flight.

   It seems those outside the territory are more nervous than us.

  Late show  NAUGHTY lingerie maker Top Form International is being little coy about its results.

   Originally scheduled for October 24, the announcement has been briefly postponed until sometime around November 10, when hopefully all will be revealed.

   The company secretary reckons there was nothing sinister about this postponement - just a couple of directors out of the territory or something.

   This is bad news for shareholders who look forward to their racy annual report, which will be similarly delayed.

   Extrapolating from the last two annual reports, the 1994 one should have 18 full pages of full colour pictures of semi-clad models wearing the company's products.

   Hopefully the mix of 34Bs and 36Ds on these pages will not detract attention from the other figures on show.

   Runaround  THERE'S been a consumer breakthrough in one of the shops in Queensway Plaza.

   A customer in one of the shoe shops asked for a larger size than the pair on display, and was told that 'one size fits all'.



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Shun Tak Holdings

Lucky for some that reputations don't travel

Stanley Ho