Author: Andrew Newby
With all the inevitability of a North Korean by-election, analysts continue to rate Hong Kong’s corporate finest as the best-managed companies in Asia in banking & finance (HSBC), conglomerates (Hutchison Whampoa Limited) and property (Sun Hung Kai Properties).
Hutchison Whampoa (HWL) booked a cool HK$50 billion (US$6.4 billion) profit in the first half of 2000 by selling its 10% stake in Mannesmann to Vodafone. HWL also profited to the tune of approximately HK$6.5 billion following the merger, approved in August 2000, of its 49%- owned Canadian associate company, Husky Oil Limited, with Renaissance Energy, also a Canadian company.
Giordano heads retail for the second year in succession, boosted by news in October of a HK$100 million joint venture with China Resources Enterprise (rated fourth in the China category) to sell Giordano clothes on the mainland. China Resources has a vast retail network in China and the two companies plan to open shops and counters in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou Chinese companies come top in oil & gas (Sinopec) and cellular phones (China Mobile) and grab second spot in petrochemicals (Sinopec again). Sinopec was listed on the Hong Kong and New York stock exchanges in October.