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Ben Kwok

Mobius hedges his bets on direction of the market
Dr Mark Mobius is arguably one of the world's best known investors - after Warren  Buffett, of course. 
For the second time this week, the Templeton Asset Management chairman was besieged by financial journalists wanting some investment insights from the follically challenged pundit. They covered everything from the recent Dubai debacle to the possibility of a mainland bubble before the really big question that the local biz hacks wanted to ask: what's happening with the Hang Seng Index, and should we be worried by its bloodbath last Friday?
'I can confidently say the stock market will continue to fluctuate,' said Mobius, who  recently signed a deal for Templeton to invest  in Capital Strategic Investment, a small property firm owned by speculator Mico Chung Chor-yee. 
'Stocks go up, and stocks  go down. A bull market follows a bear market, and a bear market follows a bull market,' said Mobius, adding that he saw buying opportunities  in Dubai but hedged his bets by warning that the market - he didn't specify which market or markets - could fall 20 per cent. Right. So they could rise - or fall. Thanks for the technical insights, Doc. 
No shortage of demand
There are  about US$200 billion in  initial public offerings in the global pipeline,  Mobius said, worried that there could be a dampening effect on global markets next year. 
He may be worrying unnecessarily - given that retail investors threw more than US$200 billion at the top five share sales  in Hong Kong this year. 
China Longyuan Power Group Corp  reportedly attracted more than HK$200 billion in bids from retail subscribers - and it was only the fourth hottest IPO this year. 
The top five share offerings  this year attracted more than HK$1.71 trillion (or US$219 billion), beginning with Sinopharm Group,  which topped the most wanted list,  drawing HK$500 billion from the market, followed by BBMG Corp,  which  attracted HK$460 billion to its book. 
Third was the  listing of China Minsheng Banking Corp,  which drew HK$250 billion, followed by Metallurgical Corp of China, with HK$200 billion. 
Theme parks join hands
You'd think that running a business that revolves around fun would be, well, fun. Apparently, theme parks are generally nice to work at, but last year was an exception. Ask Ocean Park chief executive Tom Mehrmann, who runs out of fingers as he counts  all the reasons customers stopped coming to the park. They include financial turmoil, a record number of typhoons, mainland visa restrictions and swine flu.
That is why the park's five-year growth streak ended last year, with attendance down nearly  5 per cent to 4.8 million.  Contributing to a 52 per cent drop of HK$98.6 million in surplus to the government was that more people were not paying full price to enter the park.
Eighty per cent of customers, about 10 percentage points more than the previous year, did not pay the regular HK$250 entrance fee last year, thanks to more aggressive promotions and discounting.
To rescue growth, the park has come up with the idea of cross-promoting 11 other Asian theme parks by offering 10 to 15 per cent discounts on the mainland and in Taiwan and Singapore. Ocean Park annual pass holders can use the discount in these parks, which included the Beijing Aquarium, Taiwan Hualien Farglory Ocean Park and Singapore's Night Safari.
'Hong Kong people like to travel to theme parks,' said Mehrmann. He said Hong Kong annual pass holders would probably get more bang for their buck than pass holders from elsewhere in the region.
He still expected that the alliance could draw tens of thousands of visitors to Ocean Park. The park is also negotiating with others in South Korea, which is  the No 2  source of visitors to Ocean Park. 
Mehrmann said  Ocean Park had more corporate responsibility programmes than any comparable parks he knew in the world, giving out admission concessions  worth about HK$52 million. Last year, it  is believed,  more than 300,000 people came to the park for free, including those who  visited on their birthdays and senior citizens.



Lai See