A year after taking the helm of Hong Kong’s biggest conglomerate from his father Li Ka-shing, Victor Li is making a $3.3 billion bet that Brexit won’t dent the value of U.K. pubs or the land under them. The family’s CK Asset Holdings Ltd. unit agreed to pay 2.7 billion pounds ($3.3 billion) for Greene King Plc, which operates more than 2,700 British bars, restaurants and hotels. CK Asset said “pubs will continue to be an important part of British culture and the eating and drinking out market.” The conglomerate’s U.K. expansion signals confidence that turmoil around the country’s plan to exit the European Union won’t sink the economy, even as it erodes the price of the country’s currency and assets.
Gongbei: Police bust luxury-smuggling gang in south China
Police in Guangdong Province have broken up a gang who smuggled luxury goods, local customs office announced yesterday. A total of 25 suspects were caught, with more than 1,300 luxury brand items including watches, shoes and handbags, worth a proximately 160 million yuan ($22.7 million) seized, according to Gongbei customs. The smuggling gang caught the attention of local customs officers at the end of February. A five-month investigation showed that the network was suspected of purchasing luxury goods from Europe, transporting them to the Chinese mainland via Macau and reselling the articles to mainland customers. On August 2, the 25 suspects were caught in several different cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing. Further investigation is underway.
Shenzhen: Stock exchange ups crackdown on violations
China’s stock exchanges have stepped up their crackdown on listed firms’ violations in information disclosure and operation in a move to improve corporate governance. The Shenzhen Stock Exchange has issued 62 punishments for such practices since the beginning of this year, compared with only 37 during the same period in 2018. These violations included illegal guarantees, financial frauds and failures of due diligence by intermediary agencies. Meanwhile, the Shanghai Stock Exchange handled 86 cases involving violations of information disclosure in the first half of this year, up from 75 during the same period last year. Both bourses said they would take more steps to raise the costs of violations and offer more training to raise awareness among listed firms.
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