Former MTR chairman and minister Fred Ma enters fray as tussle for Convoy sharpens in Hong Kong’s biggest fraud case

In full-page advertisements in half a dozen Hong Kong newspapers, Fred Ma urged the SFC to ‘intervene and investigate’ Convoy’s arrangement of letting only 25 investors attend a November 26 shareholder meeting in person

The crucial shareholding meeting will determine who controls board of Convoy, the centrepiece in the Enigma Network of companies engaged in Hong Kong’s biggest corporate fraud case

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Pedestrians walk past the @Convoy building, which houses the headquarters of Convoy Global Holdings in Hong Kong in December 2017. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 5:38pm, 24 Nov 2020Updated: 10:33pm, 24 Nov 2020

One of Hong Kong’s best known public figures has entered the boardroom tussle for control of a company at the heart of the city’s biggest fraud case, days before a crucial shareholders meeting to determine the fate of Convoy Global Holdings.

Frederick Ma Si-hang, representing Convoy’s second-largest shareholder Kwok Hui-kwan, ran full-page advertisements on November 24 in half a dozen of Hong Kong’s newspapers including the South China Morning Post urging the local securities regulator to “intervene and investigate” claims that Convoy’s controlling shareholders abused their power to limit dissenting votes.

In his advertisement, Ma said Convoy’s arrangement of allowing only 25 shareholders to vote in person was “unfair, and prejudicial to the fundamental rights of shareholders”. The meeting is scheduled to be held at Convoy’s office in Wan Chai on November 26.

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and other officials “should take action to safeguard shareholders’ interest of Convoy, which is a terrible example of corporate governance” in Hong Kong, Ma said in an interview with the Post. “It will hurt the reputation of Hong Kong as an international financial centre.”

Frederick Ma Si-hang, former Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region at his Wan Chai office in April. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Convoy, with more than 1,000 employees and 100,000 customers, is one of the biggest financial managers of Hong Kong’s mandatory pension fund (MFP). It is a crucial piece of the so-called Enigma Network of the city’s penny stocks, where three former senior managers including executive director Roy Cho Kwai-chee face civil lawsuits for conspiracy to pilfer from the company and defraud Convoy’s shareholders and investors of as much as HK$4 billion (US$516 million).

Cho, the alleged mastermind of the fraud, stands accused of a conspiracy to defraud Convoy in 2016 over an HK$89 million investment connected to him. A verdict on his case is pending on November 30.