Thursday 7th October 2010

Dear Reader,

Our opinion poll on HK trading hours has now closed, and you can view the results here, as well as cross-tabulate the responses to any pair of questions. Apparently, only 17% of readers have enjoyed lunch at the expense of a broker in the last year. Amusingly in the cross-tab, of those who had not been taken to lunch, 60% said the lunch break should be abolished, while for those who had received lunch, only 16% wanted to abolish the lunch break. So, dear brokers, the way to your client's wallet is through his stomach. We'll write more about the results shortly.

But now, on to a more critical subject for HK's future finances:

NEW ARTICLE
Hong Kong Land Lease Reform, Part 1
In the first of a two-part article, we examine the 169-year history of lease tenures in HK, which ended up with a high-premium low-rent land lease policy with relatively short leases. It wasn't always this way, but before making the case for change, we explain the historical context. (7-Oct-2010)

RECENT ARTICLE
Li & Fung/IDS: special treatment for 1 shareholder
While this will benefit CCASS Participants, it plays fast-and-loose with the Bermuda Companies Act and the Takeover Code. It would have been better to amend the scheme to allow all registered shareholders to make partial elections, rather than coming to an "arrangement" with one registered shareholder outside the terms of the scheme. (28-Sep-2010)

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