Tuesday 20th March 2012

Dear Reader,

Our CE poll will close at 6pm HKT on Friday, ahead of Sunday's pseudo-election. Please update your estimates and cast your vote. Your PIN is above.

NEW ARTICLES
Two houses, one rating
So it was her house and her basement? We dig deeper into York Road and explain why it matters. (20-Mar-2012)

Stop Karrie's expensive wedding
We urge independent shareholders to vote against Karrie's proposed HK$43m acquisition of a wedding business and travel agency, loss-making startups with net liabilities of $6.6m. (20-Mar-2012)

RECENT ARTICLES
Stop the BoCom placing: get a rights issue
We call on SEHK and SSE to stop the big 3 holders from voting to approve each other's subscriptions, which would create a dangerous precedent. Thankfully BoCom has no general mandate, so they also need a special resolution to approve the placing on which they must all abstain. We urge independent shareholders to block it and call for a rights issue instead, and we suggest a way around the primitive NAV rule. (16-Mar-2012)

HKEx preps for placing
Apart from seeking a steep pay hike, the HKEx board is seeking to double its mandate to issue shares for cash without a rights issue, at double the discount of last year's mandate. Couple that with the leaked bid for the London Metal Exchange, and you can see where this is going. We urge shareholders to protect their rights by voting down the general mandate. If HKEx proceeds with LME (and we query why), then a rights issue can fund it. (15-Mar-2012)

Decapitate the headcount
We make the case for abolition of the archaic and anarchic headcount rule in Schemes of Arrangement, which was brought into focus when we reported evidence of a vote-rigging scheme in the proposed PCCW privatisation in 2009. For once, the tycoons agree with us, but the Government seems afraid to take the lead. (12-Mar-2012)

IN OTHER NEWS
SHKP (0016): ED Thomas Chan Kui-yuen arrested by ICAC
Company announcement, 19-Mar-2012
Comment: This announcement is vague. If SHKP knows anything else about the Allegation, then it should tell investors.

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