THE STUFF OF LEGEND

BEIJING Legend, the majority shareholder of Hong Kong-listed Legend Holdings, is an offshoot of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the prestigious institution which produces China's scientific geniuses.

Founder and chairman Liu Chuanzhi is more of an inventor than a business tycoon, having graduated in 1966 from the Department of Radar Communications at the Xian Military Communications Engineering College of China.

'I made a lot of inventions which were for military use but with no practical benefit - inventions that would get rusty because they were not used, and so I began to think about turning my inventions into consumer applications,' Mr Liu said.

As a respected scientist, he enjoyed high status, but low pay. 'I and my wife earned only 110 yuan (about HK$100) a month to feed five of us in 1978,' he said. These tough formative years made him determined to turn his inventions into consumer products which could improve his countrymen's way of life.

Mr Liu teamed up with his colleagues to set up a computer company in 1984, with the Chinese Academy of Science contributing 200,000 yuan (HK$181,000) towards its establishment. Judging by Legend's success today, it was money well spent.

Last year, the company listed its joint venture, Legend Holdings, on the Hong Kong stock exchange with a market capitalisation of more than $800 million. Legend's eponymous line of personal computers last year overtook Great Wall as the most popular brand of PC in China.