Hong Kong's PCCW denies Li about to quit
2001-05-18
Terms and Conditions
Pacific Century Cyberworks on Thursday denied a report that it was actively looking for a replacement for beleaguered boss Richard Li.
"Richard is not stepping down," PCCW spokeswoman Joan Wagner told AFP.
"As Richard has said we have a couple of agencies looking for high level executives," she said.
"But there is no plan for Richard to relinquish his current role as executive chairman."
Wagner was speaking after the Financial Times reported that PCCW, an internet start-up which took over Hong Kong Telecom last year, had appointment headhunters to find a replacement for Li, 34, who founded the company.
The paper quoted sources close to the board as saying the company was looking for an experienced US telecommunications executive to take over day to day responsibility for running the company while Li would withdraw to concentrate on strategy.
In comments to the paper, Li tacitly admitted this might happen next year.
"I have no intention at the moment of standing down but as a shareholder, if I feel someone else would be better at putting it (PCCW) in the right shape for the long term, I would not hestitate. I cannot see that this will come this year."
Li, the younger son of tycoon Li Ka-shing, was hailed as a business genius when he exploited last year's Internet frenzy and PCCW's massively inflated share price to secure a largely paper-based takeover of HKT, Hong Kong's former monopoly telephone network operator.
But a 90 percent fall in the company's share price since the takeover, a mounting debt crisis and revelations that Li had claimed a Stanford degree he never obtained have left his reputation in tatters.
pl-am/nj
Terms and Conditions
Copyright© 2000 LEXIS-NEXIS, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights Reserved.
quamnet.com |
