Robert Ng on a roll with the absence of familiar faces
Sometimes it does not seem to matter how much Robert Ng Chee Siong pays for land. Yesterday it was more a case of how much he saved in winning an auction.
The Sino Land chairman, who rarely misses out in capturing the main prize at a land auction, characteristically, won two prime waterfront sites (one he took outright, the other through an 85 per cent stake) in Tai Po's Pak Shek Kok for HK$10.4 billion, which was quite a bit below the market's most optimistic estimate of HK$13 billion.
Afterwards, Ng was quizzed about being up against fewer bidders this time - he had already bought three other pieces of land nearby in two earlier auctions - and he smilingly replied: 'Thank you for giving face.'
He was of course referring to the usual familiar faces, most notably Cheung Kong (Holdings) group managing director Victor Li Tzar-kuoi and representatives from Chinachem Holdings, who were missing from the auction hall - still on Christmas holidays, perhaps?
By our reckoning that's about HK$3 billion worth of face.
