Short on syllables but big on power, that's the Lis
Who rules the world?
Forbes would say it is United States President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart, President Hu Jintao. They made the top two spots on Forbes' most powerful people list.
But a closer examination by Lai See suggests the real power resides in people surnamed Li. Three people on the list have the same popular Chinese surname - the most among the 67 big guns.
First of all, there isn't any credible power list without Li Ka-shing. The 81-year-old, who reportedly sank his 15th hole-in-one in September, suffered a US$10 billion drop in net worth in the past year. But that did not hurt his No 23 ranking because he still owns the world's largest operator of container terminals, a leading health and beauty retailer in Europe, and is a major player in the lucrative property business.
Above Li was Li Changchun, the mainland's powerful propaganda chief whom Forbes described as controlling what 1.3 billion mainlanders see, hear and speak. On China's 60th birthday, he switched China Mobile customers' ringtone to patriotic song lyrics - 'Only when we have a strong country can we have a prosperous family'.
But the Li to watch is State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission chairman Li Rongrong (left), who ranked 61st. Li directed China's top 150 state-owned enterprises with US$2 trillion in revenue last year and was entrusted with getting the top enterprises to go on an overseas asset shopping spree.
Silence is golden
Lai See wonders why it took so long for Bank of East Asia to come up with an explanation for what caused the shares to gain as much as 26 per cent over the past two days.
The bank, controlled by David Li Kwok-po, issued an unusual price movement announcement at lunch time that said its directors were not aware of the reasons for the surge.
Hopes of a takeover battle between the Lis and the Queks, whose Guoco Group lifted its ante on the blue-chip bank, fuelled a 15.2 per cent rally in BEA shares on Wednesday. This was followed by as much as a 9.4 per cent gain yesterday morning. The stock retreated after the bank's statement and closed with a 2.1 per cent gain. It rose 17.6 per cent over the two days.
The share price jump is probably the best defensive strategy because it may mean higher investment costs to Quek Leng Chan, assuming he is looking to continue to build up his stake. Another plus: no one, except an early seller, would complain about the share rally.
Why BEA did not issue a public statement on the first day remains a mystery. We noted the bank could not reach six - out of 18 - directors before issuing the announcement.
Staff treat from Uncle Four
Switching to another Lee. We all know Uncle Four is generous. But how generous is he in rewarding his staff during this year's booming property market?
This year, Lee Shau-kee is spending about HK$2 million so the 100 senior managers at Henderson Land Development can take an incentive trip to Hainan Island for a three-night stay at Sanya Marriott Resort & Spa over Christmas.
That was not exactly as good as the six-day trip to Australia's Gold Coast in 2007. At that time, Lee sat on more than HK$100 billion in paper profits when the Hang Seng Index broke 30,000 points.
But it was better than last year, when the incentive programme was halted by the financial crisis.
We hear the Henderson staff are looking forward to the short break - and a big bonus afterwards.
Brought down to earth
Few companies are as patriotic as Cathay Pacific Airways, whose executives have rarely missed the chance of promoting their claims about how important Cathay is to Hong Kong, or vice versa. It's no surprise Cathay mentions Hong Kong 10 times in the airline's 180-word description on its website.
This 'Hong Kong' line may change after the firm was ordered to pay HK$61 million to 18 pilots it sacked in 2001, with close to HK$60 million of the award for defamation.
Justice Anselmo Reyes challenged the reasoning of Cathay's management when it characterised its staff as 'not having Hong Kong's best interest at heart'.
'It is true that Cathay Pacific is a Hong Kong airline,' Reyes wrote in his judgment. 'But ... there is more to Hong Kong than just Cathay. A pilot may sincerely vote for what he believes to be right in the context of his union's dispute with management and still care deeply about Hong Kong.'
So much for business patriotism.