Thursday 6th September 2012

Dear Reader,

NEW ARTICLE
HK land for HK xenophobes
We explain why the proposed "HK land for HK people" scheme, while superficially appealing to voters, won't work, and we again propose measures to make the housing and tax system simpler and fairer, including elimination of stamp duty and mortgage interest deductions, and land lease reform to open the market and lower the premiums on new leases. (6-Sep-2012)

RECENTLY ON WEBB-SITE
Webb-site Total Returns launched
Our new system allows investors, journalists and academics to know what the total return on investment in any HK-listed stock has been in the last 18 years, and to produce comparisons and rankings over any period. Say goodbye to bare price charts, where the dividends and other distributions belong to the fairies. We demonstrate with a review of 15-year returns in the HKSAR. (6-Aug-2012)

IN OTHER NEWS
Concentration warning in Grand Concord (0844)
SFC, 4-Sep-2012
This follows a request by Webb-site to the SFC late on Fri-10-Aug-2012 for an investigation of ownership concentration. The snapshot date is the next trading day, 13-Aug-2012.

The "ATV Focus" editorial that everyone is talking about...
YouTube, 3-Sep-2012

Neo-Neon (1868) board approves exercise of repurchase mandate, subject to board approval
Company announcement, 29-Aug-2012
The announcement looks like a desperate attempt to get some attention, as do the two following announcements about technology. This announcement says purchases will be made "at such time and price as determined by the Board" - in other words, they haven't decided when or how much to buy. The stock rose 83.5% in 1 day on this, on turnover equal to 11.6% of the company.

SFC commences legal proceedings against Ernst & Young over access to accounting records
SFC, 27-Aug-2012
Closely following the SFC's suspension of China High Precision (0591) comes news of another case, this time involving an auditor which claims that China's law on "state secrets" prevents it from handing over its paperwork on an aborted IPO. This is a real test of one country two systems - will the HK courts enforce a mainland law on secrecy?

SFC directs SEHK to suspend China High Precision (0591)
Company announcement, 22-Aug-2012
This is a very rare event, and comes after HKEx's Mark Dickens on 6-Aug publicly defended the decision to allow the stock to resume trading on 3-Aug, which itself broke with precedent of never commenting on individual cases. Given the high public interest in this case, where the company refused to share what it called "state secrets" with its auditor, the SFC should now explain why it has intervened.

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