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Technology Stocks : PCW - Pacific Century CyberWorks Limited -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ms.smartest.person who wrote (143)	1/20/2001 12:20:09 AM
From: ms.smartest.person	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2248

Weird antics reaching fever pitch CHARLOTTE PARSONS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There have been some strange goings-on over at Pacific Century CyberWorks. On Monday, it announced that Richard would be out of town during his firm's EGM. Tuesday he made a surprise appearance but ordered security guards to keep reporters at bay. A mere two days later and he was happily fielding media questions at the Shangri-La while enjoying a conspicuous lunch with his famous father. Then there were the high-speed laps round the office car park. The young tycoon was seen doing tyre-squealing circuits with a BMW full of bodyguards in hot pursuit. A sprinting Swire security guard brought up the rear, shouting "Follow him! Let's see what's going on with him!" No idea what that was about. Lai See has long since given up trying to understand the hobbies of the rich. At first blush, such a sequence of events might look, well, inconsistent. Weird even. But Lai See is giving Rich the benefit of the doubt on this one. We think that all these events are part of some mysterious and cunning master plan. And whatever it was - it worked. Two days ago, PCCW shares broke their allegiance with gravity and began to rise. Naturally, that's got the speculators speculating on the whys of it all. Some think the display of paternal support is behind it. Some think it might have something to do with a visiting Singaporean notable. Apple Daily even tossed Wang Xiaochu into the equation. Apparently, China Mobile's chairman had been spotted floating around the Li lunch. But as a journalist, Lai See prefers to think that it was Thursday's change-for-the-media-friendly that sent prices soaring. After all, transparency and investor confidence go hand in hand. And this week, PCCW wasn't the only firm to score points with the press and the Hang Seng. On Wednesday, China Unicom vowed to mend its press-elusive ways. For years, the notoriously unreachable firm has been the scourge of the Hong Kong media. All well and good if your company happens to be private. But when Unicom went public last June, it really should have started, well . . . going public. Execs found that one out the hard way. When hacks called up with questions about their controversial one-way billing system, Unicomers went with the tried and true I'll-just-tranfer-you-to-this-endlessly-ringing-phone approach. But when the press slammed them for lack of transparency, share prices dropped about 20 per cent. So on Wednesday, members of the press were invited to a "casual" meal. Presumably, Unicom wanted to have reporters for lunch so that they would stop having Unicom for lunch. Its chairman, Shi Cuiming, asked for their views on the following topic: Do you think there's anything we should do to improve our relationship with the press? The floodgates opened, and the anecdote-sharing got competitive as reporters tried to out-moan each other. As the chorus of discontent swelled toward a crescendo, the chairman appeared contrite. "We have been facing a lot of pressure since our company became a public company," he said. "Whenever we do anything wrong, no matter how small an issue it was, investors react quickly." This week, share prices rose more than 15 per cent. Lai See applauds such movements toward openness. A new Chinese calendar year is at hand, and it looks like telecom companies are ringing in the changes. We hope others will follow their example in this, the Year of the Snake. Hmmm. Actually, we're not sure we like the whole snake image. Where matters of press relations are concerned, forked tongues don't bode well. So in the spirit of rising share prices, Lai See instead wishes media communicators a Year of the Bulls. Just don't make us take away that last "s". Tel: 2565 2671 Fax: 2565 1624 Email: laisee@scmp.com nrstg2s.djnr.com