Nan Fung denies new chief Antony Leung hired to gear up for relisting
Privately owned developer denies that hiring former financial secretary Anthony Leung as chief executive is part of strategy for public listing
Nan Fung Development managing director Donald Choi Wun-hing has poured cold water on rising speculation that the firm is preparing the city's first major real estate share listing since 2012.
Market talk has swirled about a possible HK$100 billion listing for Nan Fung since it was revealed in November that former financial secretary, Antony Leung Kam-chung, had been hired as chief executive of the privately led property developer.
"We don't have a schedule for a public offering. We don't need to go public, as we have no funding pressure," Choi told the South China Morning Post.
Leung's appointment had fuelled expectations of an imminent listing given that he had left his previous role as Greater China chairman for United States-based private equity giant Blackstone to join Nan Fung.
But Choi dismissed that the decision to appoint Leung was all about devising a listing strategy.
"He is going to help our chairman [Vivien Chen Wai-wai] to lead Nan Fung into another stage," Choi said.
The firm's financials have been getting closer scrutiny since it bought a 29.98 per cent stake in a Singapore-listed property trust, Forterra Trust in August last year. Documents that formed part of the roadshow material circulated by Nan Fung put the company's net asset value at HK$94.39 billion in March 2013.