Thursday 13th June 2013

Dear Reader,

With the beginning of the end of quantitative easing now visible at the end of the Federal Reserve tunnel, by the time the HK Government succeeds in pushing misconceived legislation on Buyer's Stamp Duty and Double Stamp Duty through LegCo, it will be time to suspend both. But the damage will already be done to HK's free market reputation. Here is our response to this morning's meeting...

NEW ARTICLE
Second submission to LegCo on DSD
This morning's session with public delegations, in which a junior civil servant was fielded, leaves a number of fundamental policy questions to be answered by the principal officials. Here they are. (13-Jun-2013)

RECENTLY ON WEBB-SITE
Avoiding double stamp duty
A HK$1.6bn deal announced yesterday neatly demonstrates how the proposed Double Stamp Duty will drive higher-end transactions into the corporate transfer market, while freezing up the low end with prohibitive taxation. We'll be speaking against DSD in LegCo tomorrow. (12-Jun-2013)

Scrap the public float rule
Investors in SCMP (0583) are in the deep freeze again, and other companies have indulged in artificial schemes to comply with the 25% public float rule. The rule should be scrapped, because as we explain, it has no real purpose, and because the only way to enforce it is to victimize minority shareholders by suspending their shares. The rule does not serve investor interests. (11-Jun-2013)

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