Wednesday 18th September 2013

Dear Reader,

NEW ARTICLE
Alibaba's spotlight on HK regulation
10 years after the Expert Group report, Alibaba's requests spotlight the unresolved conflict of interests of HKEx between profit and regulation, creating an opportunity for Government to put this back on the agenda. They should now follow through, strip HKEx of its regulatory role, create a Listings and Takeovers Authority under the SFC, and remove the special provisions of HKEx's own constitution which make it a Government-controlled company. (18-Sep-2013)

RECENTLY ON WEBB-SITE
Women and the size of HK boards
Webb-site has completed a database on HK-listed boards since 1990. We begin a series of analyses on board composition, starting with the number and proportion of women on boards, and the size of boards in response to changing rules on the number and proportion of "independent" directors. (13-Sep-2013)

Webb-site opens airport slot data
HK needs a full debate about how we optimally allocate scarce resources, whether it is radio spectrum for mobile phones and broadcasting, or in this case, for takeoff and landing slots at HK's airport. To facilitate that debate, Webb-site is today decrypting the Civil Aviation Department's slot data and calling for it to be added to the Data.One government portal in a machine-readable format. (9-Sep-2013)

IN OTHER NEWS
Hontex (0946): listing cancelled
Company announcement, 16-Sep-2013
Hontex thereby sets the record for infant mortality on HKEx, having been listed for just 96 days up to the last trading day. This beats the record held by Codebank Ltd, which imploded on the GEM board in 2002 after being listed for 144 days.

Ex-RBS trader gets 50 months in HK jail for fraud
Bloomberg, 13-Sep-2013

Grande Holdings Ltd (0186): winding-up order
HK Court of First Instance, 12-Sep-2013
So-called expert witness Ian Grant Robinson says that it is "inconceivable" to restructure the company after a winding up order has been made and to his knowledge this "has never been done before and I believe it cannot be done". The provisional liquidator responds by listing 4 cases where it has indeed been done. Mr Robinson had better do his homework next time.

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