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Gold Shine Investment Ltd v Secretary for Justice
HK Court of First Instance, 29-Dec-2009
This judgment is about the Lido complex at Repulse Bay. The plaintiff is a subsidiary of Emperor International (0163). It contains an interesting history of how part of the land was granted to Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels (then Hongkong Hotel Co Ltd) without auction in 1921, which got into financial difficulties and assigned it to HK Realty & Trust (now Wheelock Properties Ltd) in 1923. Emperor acquired a 55% stake in 93/100 of the lot in 1993 and has since increased to 97.67%. The original pavilion was 49,500 sq ft (after extensions), and the new one is 143,473 sq ft. The judge ruled that the consent of the Government as landlord is required for any new building on the site (other than reinstatement of the old one). Hence, if consent is forthcoming, then a land premium will be payable and the developer has breached the lease by going ahead with the development without consent.

Suitability in a disclosure-based market
SEHK has announced possible waivers of the profit criteria. We don't object, but the profit test should be scrapped. It has no place in a disclosure-based market, and is no substitute for better accounting disclosure requirements and effective legal remedies and deterrents, all of which HK still sorely lacks. We make proposals for those. (8-Jun-2009)