News Stories:

Click-on these handy "jump links" to quickly access the news item
you're looking for.

1. Kowloon Hotel bids breach $2b

2. Swire chief fires parting shot over West Kowloon

3. Historic building was condemned by absentee board members

1. Kowloon Hotel bids breach $2b
Staff reporter, The Standard 26 November 2004

Hotel and property investor Magnificent Estates is a leading contender to acquire Kowloon Hotel after entering a more than HK$2 billion bid for the Tsim Sha Tsui property, market sources said.

The current owner, Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, had received five bids by last Friday's tender deadline.

Other bidders included Sun Hung Kai Properties, Sino Land and Chinese Estates Holdings, with offers ranging from HK$1.6 billion to nearly HK$2 billion, sources said.

The four-star, 736-room hotel, which was completed in 1986, claims to have recorded an average occupancy rate of 93 per cent in the first seven months of this year. Though the owner said the bids were still being studied, sources said the result could be known as early as this week.

Magnificent Estates merely said it had submitted a tender to acquire a hotel in Hong Kong for operation, but it did not know when the winning bid would be announced.

Shares of the company fell 9.23 per cent to close at HK$0.118 on Thursday after jumping 13.04 per cent on Wednesday.

Magnificent Estates has been an active buyer of hotels in the past 15 months, hoping to capitalise on the growing number of mainland tourists to Hong Kong. In April, it bought a hotel in Western District for HK$350 million.

In September last year, the company acquired a hotel in North Point from Lai Sun Garment (International) chairman Lim Por-yen for HK$230 million.

Real estate consultants expect annual hotel returns to be between 6 and 7 per cent. Last month, Magnificent Estates said it will make a capital gain of about HK$100 million on its sale of a six-storey retail podium at Silver Fortune Plaza on Wellington Street, Central, to a local investor for HK$280 million.

Meanwhile, the company has put Shun Ho Tower in Central up for sale by tender. The 24-storey office building at 24-30, Ice House Street, is expected to arouse strong interest. The tender closes on November 30.

2. Swire chief fires parting shot over West Kowloon
Dennis Eng, The Standard 26 November 2004

James Hughes-Hallett, outgoing chairman of Swire Pacific, has taken a parting shot at government plans for the West Kowloon cultural hub, saying more debate is needed - ``and fast''.

He said its museums would be better sprinkled around town than concentrated on the 40-hectare site.

``West Kowloon needs better cultural infrastructure,'' Hughes-Hallett said on Thursday.

``This is a really important crossroads and I believe more debate is needed and fast.

``I think there is a better way to do it,'' said the executive, who will return to Swire's London headquarters in December for one year before retiring.

``The community needs more time to think about'' where to put cultural centres, he added.

He said Swire knew all along that its non-conforming bid for the project - which ignored several stipulations, including the need for a massive canopy - was bound to be eliminated in the first round of the screening process. But it submitted the proposal anyway in an effort to spark a debate on how best to use the West Kowloon site.

``We submitted an alternative proposal that met the cultural needs of Hong Kong but not the definition'' of a cultural hub as specified by the government, Hughes-Hallett said.

The Swire chief said readily accessible areas like the Hong Kong Cultural Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui and the vacant Tamar lot would make better sites for museums.

The company's property arm owns the Pacific Place shopping and office complex in Admiralty adjacent to the Tamar site.

``People don't really make plans to visit a museum. If they realise they have to go all the way to West Kowloon, they may decide to go to a restaurant instead,'' he said.

The government has shortlisted three bids for the HK$40 billion cultural and residential project.

The bidders are Henderson Land Development; Dynamic Star, bringing together Cheung Kong (Holdings) and Sun Hung Kai Properties; and Sunny Development, a consortium of Sino Land, Wharf (Holdings) and Chinese Estates.

Hughes-Hallett declined to comment on the three proposals.

Public consultations on the West Kowloon project are slated to start in mid-December.

Models and information on the three proposals will be on display at the Science Museum for a period of six weeks.

3. Historic building was condemned by absentee board members
CHLOE LAI, SCMP 26 November 2004

A fresh round of controversy is brewing about the future of the Central Police Station site after it was revealed that a decision by antiquities watchdogs not to preserve one of the buildings was made without a quorum.

The Home Affairs Department said more than half the Antiquities Advisory Board members, including the absentees, had since written to endorse the decision.

But barrister-legislator Audrey Eu Yuet-mee said yesterday the decision was invalid.

"Another meeting should be held if there was no quorum. Unless the law says they can make a decision by writing to the board, written endorsement cannot substitute a quorum," she said.

Attendance records show that only eight of the 21 board members attended the meeting on November 3, at which they discussed the fate of F Hall of Victoria Prison - which is part of the site along with the old Central Magistracy.

They decided the building at the prison entrance would not merit preservation when the site is redeveloped, a decision that has since come under fire from activists.

Under the Antiquities and Monuments Ordinance, at least half the board is needed for a quorum.

Albert Lai Kwong-tak, a member of the Central Police Station heritage taskforce, said: "The board's advice is critical to the preservation of Hong Kong's heritage. I wonder how there could be proper discussion when there is no quorum.

"The system is not working. This shows it needs an independent statutory board that will be transparent and accountable."

One absentee from the meeting, Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong legislator Cheung Hok-ming, said he had resigned from the board because he was too busy to attend meetings.

"I had been engaged with election activities in the past year. So I couldn't attend the board's meetings," said Mr Cheung, who has attended only one of the 10 board meetings held since he was appointed early last year.

The board, which has long been criticised for having a "black-box" operation and lacking accountability to the public, does not announce meeting dates. Its agenda and minutes are also confidential.

The announcement of the decision on F Hall was not made until almost a week after the meeting.

The failure to raise a quorum also highlights attendance problems among the board, shown by a study of the records.

Chinese University history professor Kwok Siu-tong said he would quit the historical buildings and structures and education subcommittees after not attending any of their meetings.

"There are duplications between the general meetings and the committee meetings. They discuss the same issues. So I decided not to attend the committee meetings. I'll withdraw from them," he said.

Victor Sit Fung-shuen, who teaches geography at Hong Kong University, declined to comment on his zero attendance at archaeology subcommittee meetings.

Seventeen of the 27 buildings on the site are now slated for preservation fully or in part when the area is redeveloped in a project about to be put up for tender.

The antiquities board said none of the members had supported the preservation of F Hall, despite calls from legislators and others for it to stay because it was part of the city's "collective memory".