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After all twists and turns in the privatization of PCCW(0008), there was another dramatic turn on 12 February. The company announced that substantive hearing scheduled to take place on 24 February would be postponed to a later date until further notice. Since court hearing is the final legal procedure to be completed in the process of privatization, such postponement means that privatization is not yet finalized. The shares of the company will remain listed for trading. On the other hand, in another announcement, the major shareholder of PCCW, Pacific Century Regional Developments Limited (PCRD), denied any involvement by any of its directors in vote-rigging and stressed that PCRD and Fortis Insurance (Asia) Limited were not related parties currently.
PCCW issued an announcement on the night of 12 February referring to the Supplemental Scheme of Arrangement it released on 12 January which set out 17 February to be the date for High Court directions hearing regarding privatization and 24 February the date for substantive hearing. The 12 February announcement stated that upon an application filed by PCCW, the High Court decided to defer the directions hearing to 24 February which was originally scheduled for the substantive hearing, and the timetable for the substantive hearing would be fixed upon directions hearing. In other words, the High Court will not make a final decision on the privatization of PCCW on 24 February.
Right before PCCW voted on its proposed privatization, independent stock commentator David Webb claimed that he received an anonymous letter in which Fortis Insurance brokers were alleged to have been given “one lot of PCCW shares” each and been demanded to sign a proxy voting for the privatization. David Webb suspected an act of vote-rigging and reported the case to the ICAC and SFC. Subsequently, it was uncovered by the media that the “sudden” increase of “one lot shareholders” was not limited to Fortis Insurance brokers, but also brokers of Prudential and AIA. On behalf of minority shareholders, several political parties including the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong demanded the SFC to thoroughly investigate the allegation of vote-rigging. The incident has then snowballed. ■Translated by 開明
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