PCCW denies looking for new chief after Li hints of stepping down
HONG KONG Ð Pacific Century Cyberworks (PCCW) yesterday denied a report it was looking for a replacement for Richard Li but the beleagured boss conceded he might take a back seat next year.
"Richard is not stepping down," PCCW spokeswoman Joan Wagner said.
"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."
Li is currently chief executive as well as executive chairman.
Wagner was speaking after the Financial Times reported that PCCW, an internet start-up which took over Cable and Wireless 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 stepping 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 Cable and Wireless HKT, Hong Kong's former monopoly telephone network operator.
But his reputation has been left in tatters by a 90 percent fall in the company's share price, huge debt and revelations company publicity material falsely claimed Li had a Stanford degree.
The company announced in March it tumbled to a net loss last year of US$886 million after making huge writeoffs on its Internet investments.
An anlyst with a local brokerage said Li had been under tremendous pressure lately, especially over his failure to correct reports he was a Stanford graduate and the huge drop in the company's share price.
"From the investors' point of view, they feel that there is something wrong and it is Richard Li."
However, the report would be unlikely to have much of a positive impact on the company's share price.
Much would depend on the identity of anyone brought into PCCW, the analyst said.
The new chief executive and Li would have to work closely together as there would be some form of power sharing.
bday.net |
