Hutchison Whampoa's Frank Sixt is unlikely to
forget October in a hurry. Instead of waxing lyrical about
rolling out 3G services to select customers in the UK and the
opening of a couple of 3G stores in the UK and Italy, the Hong
Kong conglomerate's group finance director spent much of his
time explaining his company's botched foray into international
capital markets.
Late on September 30, Sixt took the unprecedented decision to
cancel Hutchison's planned e1.5 billion multi-tranche bond issue.
Against a backdrop of falling global equity markets and widening
corporate bond spreads, he was left with little choice. But such
treatment by the market was a sharp shock for an Asian corporate
that is used to getting exactly what it wants.
As one analyst puts it: "The big gorilla of Hong Kong...
