Wong family finds way to safeguard property investments
Midland boss' deals with listed realtor have been a good earner, but questions are being asked
If you are a shareholder of beleaguered Midland your heart may skip a beat after looking at the firm's connected transactions with chairman Freddie Wong Kin-yip.
Of the total, 15 are owned by Wong and one shop is held by his daughter. One of these properties gets a licence fee for advertisements placed on the wall of a shop premises in Mongkok to promote the realtor. Despite the company posting a record loss of HK$204 million last year, the firm's rental expenses jumped 30 per cent to HK$615.2 million.
Wong's property investments remained unscathed by the depressed property market. He raised rents for six properties; seven remained unchanged and rents were cut on three leases.
Wong increased the rental for an office unit in New Mandarin Plaza, Tsim Sha Tsui, by 12 per cent to HK$162,000 per month when the lease came up for renewal in April.
The second largest shareholder, Apex Benchmark, raised questions over Wong's large number of connected transactions. Apex, a Hong Kong-based real estate fund, believes a cap should be put on future connected transactions.