Hong Kong investors and listed companies wage a war of independence – over board directors

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Independent non-executive directors are in focus after the stock market operator proposed a limit on the number of seats they can hold

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Enoch Yiu

Published: 10:00am, 14 Sep 2024Updated: 10:31am, 14 Sep 2024

On a Sunday night in June 2019, Abraham Razack faced a dilemma. The images he saw on TV news earlier that day unsettled him.

A million people, or one in seven Hongkongers, had taken to the streets, marching peacefully to oppose the government’s introduction of a controversial extradition bill.

Razack, who is now 79, felt that the unprecedented demonstrative outpouring by the city’s residents was the beginning of something that “would not end any time soon, and it was set to hurt the economy”, he said last week in an interview with the Post.

Sure enough, that Sunday was the beginning of several months of protests – occasionally violent, some requiring police intervention – that kicked off Hong Kong’s descent into the economic doldrums. What followed was three years of the Covid-19 pandemic, which exacerbated the economic malaise. And Hong Kong has still yet to fully recover.

What bothered Razack, who is also known by his Chinese name Shek Lai-him, was the decision three weeks earlier by Goldin Financial Holdings, controlled by billionaire developer Pan Sutong, to pay HK$11.1 billion (US$1.41 billion) for a plot of commercial land on the site of the city’s former airport at Kai Tak. Razack is an independent non-executive director (INED) at Pan’s company, Goldin Financial Holdings.

Abraham Razack at his office in Central. Photo: Jonathan Wong

It was a big moment for Pan, as Goldin’s bid bested those of other Hong Kong property tycoons – from CK Asset Holdings’ Victor Li to Sino Land’s Robert Ng – for the harbourfront plot. He planned to invest another HK$7 billion into the development to erect a luxury hotel, as well as grade-A offices.