Tuesday 23rd June 2009

Dear Reader,

Thought for the day: after locking up hundreds of tourists in a hotel to boost the tourism industry/in the vain hope of isolating HK from swine flu, we are now the only territory in the world to shut down all schools, ironically at the same time as announcing plans to make HK an education hub by dolling out land to "private universities". Is the government giving up on our public universities? How can you build a university with only 200,000 sq ft of floor area anyway - equivalent to about 10 floors of the Cheung Kong Centre? Meanwhile HK Disneyland responds to the kindergarten/primary shutdown by launching a special unlimited entry pass for children before the end of June. At least, we thought, there is some entrepreneurialism left in HK, albeit imported. But not so fast - lest we forget, this is the world's only Government-owned Disneyland. The offer no longer appears on the Disney web site.

Now back to the market: we continue where we left off 12 days ago, with Part 3, and two side stories.

Skin in the game
In part 3 of a series, we look at the often calamitous IPOs produced by B M Intelligence and its conversion into China Bio-med Regeneration Technology, involving a huge mark-up on the acquisition. We also cover an international organisation run out of a cobbler's shop in Las Vegas, and the recent changes of ownership in CBRT, including a CPPC member who is a big fan of the PLA.

The Semtech saga
In this side story to Part 3, we look at the scandals which surrounded Sino-Tech International Holdings Ltd in 2004, the subsequent convictions, possible options abuse and the missing deposit on a failed Vietnamese chromium mining project.

GP Nanowreck
In this side story to Part 3, we tell you about the convicted criminal who the SFC alleges was behind the IPO of GP Nanotechnology, which was one of the pre-IPO customers of B M Intelligence. We now publish the complaint filed by Webb-site.com in 2002 which triggered the investigation, and ask whether the SFC's action to disqualify directors is sufficient, given the alleged false and misleading disclosures.

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