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PUBLISHED SINCE 1903 VOLUME LXIV NO. 323

Thursday, November 20, 2008

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Hopewell looks to speed up project

Mega Tower height cut by 38 floors
Olga Wong The Mega Tower – Hopewell Holdings’ proposed 93-storey hotel skyscraper
in Wan Chai – is no more. The developer yesterday announced a revised plan, cutting
its height by 38 floors. Fourteen controversy-filled years after the project was
first approved, it has shrunk to 55 floors, bringing it below the Hong Kong Island
ridge line and making it shorter than the nearby Hopewell Centre, which, at 60 floors,
was once Hong Kong’s tallest building. Announcing the changes yesterday, Hopewell
managing director Thomas Jefferson Wu said he hoped they would speed up the project,
which the company is now calling Hopewell Centre II. The government is seeking legal
advice on whether the scaled-down project needs fresh approval from the Town Planning
Board. “We have never seen a developer initiating such a large-scale reduction
in an approved plan,” said Secretary for Development Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor.
She said that regulations only require scaled-up projects to secure a second approval
from the board. The first plan was approved in 1994. Wan Chai District Council will
be consulted in January. Despite the reduction, the 1,024-

Cut down to size
1994 plan
Storeys

New plan
Storeys

Height

Height

315 metres 210 metres

SOURCE: HOPEWELL HOLDINGS

SCMP GRAPHIC

room hotel is expected to be the biggest on Hong Kong Island and will be the city’s
first conference hotel. Mr Wu said it would be able to cater for conferences with
1,000 participants. A spokesman for Hilton Hotels said the group had signed an exclusive
agreement with Hopewell to explore the possibility of co-developing the hotel. Mr
Wu promised to preserve as far as possible the green areas at the site between Kennedy
Road and Queen’s Road East and to revitalise the neighbouring grade-one listed
historic mansion Nam Koo Terrace. Two public spaces totalling 5,880 square metres
will be provided, one within the site managed by Hopewell

according to government guidelines and an adjacent one managed by the government.
The plan also includes road-improveEditorial ment works such as widening Queen’s
Road East, which Mr Wu said would alleviate traffic congestion. They are subject
to approval by the Transport Department. Mr Wu said the new plan demonstrated the
company’s determination to shoulder its social responsibilities. He dismissed speculation
that it had made a deal with the government for a lower land premium in return for
protecting the island ridge line. A government source said there was no hidden deal.
Mr Wu said the project’s cost would fall by HK$2 billion, to HK$5 billion. Hong
Kong Institute of Surveyors president Yu Kam-hung estimated the changes would reduce
the tower’s value by a quarter. Mr Wu said scaling it down did not necessarily
make it less profitable. A source in the company said it would not have revised the
plan if it was not going to be profitable. The project will provide construction
work for 1,500, and 4,000 jobs. It is expected to be finished in 2015.
Plan to save trees



Gun-toting Somali pirates guard crew of the mainland fishing vessel Tian Yu No 8,
seized on Sunday. Below: the Delight, seized on Tuesday. Photos: EPA, AP

Somali pirates release HK ship
Phyllis Tsang and Agencies A Hong Kong-flagged ship and its 25 crew hijacked two
months ago by pirates off Somalia were released yesterday after its owner paid a
ransom. But the fate of another Hong Kong-flagged ship, the Delight, and its 25-man
crew hijacked by pirates in the same area off East Africa on Tuesday was not known.
The Delight, operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, was carrying
36,000 tonnes of wheat to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. None of its crew are
Chinese. The ship’s operator said it had had no contact with the vessel. Andrew
Mwangura, of the East African Seafarers Association, believed it was sailing for
the Somali coast. yet, seizing a Saudiowned supertanker carrying a US$100 million
cargo of crude oil to the United States. Harry’s view Since then, they have also
seized a Thai fishing boat and a Greek bulk carrier. A Chinese-flagged trawler, the
Tian Yu No 8, was seized last week. Its crew comprises 15 mainland Chinese, one Taiwanese,
one Japanese, three Filipino and four Vietnamese sailors. Pirates off the lawless
country have seized nearly 100 vessels this year, prompting governments the world
over to consider how better to protect ships plying Africa’s Indian Ocean coast.
South Korea said it was
‘Send in the UN’



The Hong Kong government said it was concerned about the fate of the Delight and
its crew – from India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Iran and Guyana – seized in
Yemeni waters in the Gulf of Aden. The Marine Department is liaising closely with
the ship’s manager. On Saturday, Somali pirates staged their most spectacular hijack

considering sending navy ships to join an international armada off Somalia. Japan
is reportedly also considering sending navy vessels. The ship released yesterday,
the MV Great Creation, is a bulk carrier owned by Sinotrans Shipping, which confirmed
a ransom had been paid. It said the vessel and crew members were on the way home.
Mr Mwangura said it was heading for Abu Dhabi. The ship, whose crew includes a Hong
Kong resident, is the second Hong Kong-flagged vessel released this week. The Japanese-owned
chemical tanker Stolt Valor, with 22 crew, was released on Sunday after being held
since September 15.

Agence France-Presse, Xinhua, Reuters

Legal battle after bust-up in late tycoon’s firm
Peter Brieger and Gary Cheung Henry Fok Ying-tung’s closest adviser has launched
a legal battle with the company set up to realise the late tycoon’s dream of creating
a miniature Hong Kong on the mainland. In documents filed to the High Court, Ho Ming-sze
asked that the latest annual meeting of the HK$3.5 billion Fok Ying Tung Ming Yuan
Development Company – and any resolutions it passed – be declared invalid. Mr
Ho also wants the court to confirm that the current slate of 12 directors, including
himself, will remain “the only directors until the next validly convened annual
general meeting”. The company is chaired by Michael Fok Hin-keung, one of the sons
of Mr Ho’s long-time friend and colleague. A source close to Mr Ho – a former
senior official at Xinhua News Agency – said that at the November 6 meeting the
board approved the addition of Ian Fok Chun-wan, another of the tycoon’s sons,
as director. Ian Fok is chairman of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce. The
source said Mr Ho was angry that the meeting’s agenda was not endorsed by the board
beforehand. It is understood Mr Ho also contested the legality of the meeting on
the grounds that it did not follow due process. Mr Ho declined to comment yesterday
and refused to disclose more details, including the agenda of the meeting. Efforts
to reach Mr Ho’s lawyer were unsuccessful. Henry Fok was among the first to Henry
Fok began developing Nansha, an island in the Pearl River estuary, in the early 1990s.
A year before he died in 2006, he set up the firm to turn 22 sq km of land along
its coast into a recreational, commercial and scientific research centre. Henry Fok
is reported to have quietly battled obstacles placed by local officials in the way
of the Nansha development. Two years before his death, Mr Ho – who quit the Communist
Party over the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown – caused a sensation with a series
of articles relating how officials had charged Fok twice as much as other Pearl River
Delta cities for land-fill material, refused to approve an internal shuttle bus service
for his employees and competed with his ferry terminal.

Henry Fok invest in the Pearl River Delta after China began opening up 30 years ago
and is credited with helping create a sense of Chinese nationality among Hongkongers.
He spent billions over two decades developing his family’s home city of Panyu ,
including Nansha , which has since been absorbed into Guangzhou.

News Digest
National
Guangdong vows action on economy
Guangdong will streamline its government, loosen the administration’s control over
business, launch economic experiments and boost high-value-added industries to prevent
the manufacturing heartland from sinking in the global financial crisis, officials
and experts told a key economic conference in Shenzhen yesterday. Party bosses vow
to cut the red tape that hinders economic development. Full report A4

Business
Full convertibility of yuan urged
Former People’s Bank of China deputy governor Wu Xiaoling says Beijing should gear
up for full convertibility of the yuan, telling a seminar it should become an international
reserve currency at the same time. The mainland has become the largest holder of
US Treasury securities, according to the latest figures from Washington. Full report
B1

City
Policeman dies in suicide pact
An off-duty policeman from the elite airport special security unit and his grandmother
are found dead in a smoke-filled room in Mong Kok, in an apparent suicide pact. Ma
Chun-bong, 29, was also a member of a team that provided emotional counselling to
other officers. Fellow policemen are shocked and puzzled by the deaths. Detectives
are investigating why the pair apparently took their lives. Full report C1

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Inside
NEWS SECTION A Weather A2 ....................................... Financial Meltdown
A2-3 ....................................... National A4-7 .......................................
Around The Nation A6 ....................................... International A8-10
....................................... Behind the News A11 .......................................
Leaders & Letters A12 ....................................... Insight A13 BUSINESS
SECTION B Companies & Finance B2-3 ....................................... World
B4-5 ....................................... Markets B6 .......................................
Mutual Funds B7 ....................................... Currencies B8 .......................................
Hong Kong Stocks B10 ....................................... China Stocks B11 .......................................
Monitor & Lai See B12 CITY . LIFE . SPORT SECTION C City News C1-4 .......................................
CitySeen, Talkback C2 ....................................... Life C5 .......................................
Screen, Food C6, 7 ....................................... Diversions, TV & Radio
C9, 10 ....................................... Rugby C12 .......................................
Basketball C3 ....................................... Golf C14

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