Friday 21st January 2011 - Late Edition

Dear Reader,

NEW ARTICLES
Karce chairman extracted hidden fee
According to a judgment published today, when Karce (1159) sold a PCB business in 2008, the price was actually US$4m, not US$3m as Karce announced, and US$1m went as a "consultancy fee" to a company called Extract Group Ltd. And guess who owned Extract? We tell you, and call on the SFC and SEHK to investigate. (21-Jan-2011)

HPH Trust is no loss to HK
Singapore has invested over US$5bn in Hutchison's ports, so it is not surprising that HPH is listing there. We look at the other incentives, and the governance concerns for the Business Trust structure. We also ask why China Resources Enterprise (291) has not disclosed the outcome of its profit-sharing after CRH flipped its port stakes to HPH. (21-Jan-2011)

RECENT ARTICLES
Trouble and strife at Applied Development
An encrypted Court of Appeal judgment reveals a classic basket case of corporate governance problems at Applied Development (0519) - a case study of what can go wrong with small, family-run HK-listed companies. (18-Jan-2011)

Guangdong Investment's unaccredited MBAs
The Guangdong window company is being run by a board with not one but two MBAs from the same diploma mill. We'll tell you who else among HK-listed companies claims a degree from International East-West University. (18-Jan-2011)

ICBC rights issue - just practising?
We look at the hidden cost of ICBC's mini-rights issue, which raised less than they paid out in last year's dividend. Non-government shareholders could have avoided billions in tax if the bank had just kept the profit instead - unless it plans to cut this year's dividend as well. More likely, the rights issue was just a practise run for something larger next time. (14-Jan-2011)

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