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評David Webb 的 Cashing up with Next Media (為壹傳媒(0282)計數)
(註: 謝謝鉛筆小生、bonbon2468的提醒，筆者無持有此股。)David Webb 在2012年10月26日 發出這一篇文章，在之前一日的壹周刊都有一篇David Webb對該項收購的建議，但如果要看得清楚明白他意思，還要看這篇原文。在此文章中，他稱他已持有壹傳媒股份。但我卻不認同他的計算方式。在此先談談David Webb 說過些甚麼，筆者再作一個總結。
(1) 原文簡譯
在2012年10月15日，壹傳媒有限公司(壹傳媒，282)簽訂兩項有關可能出售本集團台灣印刷及電視業務之意向書，包括台灣蘋果日報及台灣壹周刊予辜仲諒。印刷媒體價格為160億台幣(42.43億)，電視媒體價格為15億台幣(3.98億)，合計為175億台幣(46.41億)。
在2012年3月31日，壹傳媒淨借款為2.88億，加上此項出售所得的現金，會使手上現金增至43.5億，並計上期間的現金流出。當中或許有一些交易費用，但這並不重大。我們假設這些附屬公司是並不包括負債的。
現在發行股數為24.12億股。在2012年9月30日，這兒合共有4,868.4萬股購股權並無行使，較2012年3月30日的4,586.4萬股略為增加，平均行使價為1.067元。另外，還有一項在2007年的被邀請參與的「新股份認購及融資計劃」，是當行使購股權後，提供3年貸款認購股份期權的計劃。除100萬股外，這計劃於2012年11月7日會終止，另外因購股權行使價為2.12元，所以我們可以忽略之。這100萬股的行使價為2.49元，並在2013年2月24日到期。
所以當所有購股權行使後，會帶來約5,200萬，使現金餘額增至44億元，股份數目則增至24.61億股，即每股現金約1.79元。
壹傳媒無現金需要，剩下的生意是賺錢的香港媒體生意，包括原來的蘋果日報、壹周刊，以及持有香港的固定資產，包括於將軍澳的總部，所以可以保持一定的借貸。
在2011年，持有壹傳媒74.05%的大股東黎智英，注入1億美元(7.76億元)購入動畫業務，而這項業務是虧損且有負債淨額。他在12年前在蘋果速銷失敗虧損約1億美金亦為人所熟知，他亦是一位善良的金主，為香港的泛民主派提供資金。以上的因素可以使我們認為他是決定重新注重香港核心市場，而跟隨著他的股東，可以通過他出售台灣的業務來保障他們的權益。
如果台灣的交易完成，以昨(25)日的收市價1.56元計算，壹傳媒是以現金的折扣價出售。我們預期大部分的現金以特別股息分發，所以投資者有機會免費取得其香港的媒體業務。但亦有以下股價向下的風險:
- 交易不能完成，我們注視的這真是不幸地，大約有20%的機會交易不能成功。這交易看來出價公平合理，辜先生也拿到一項戰略性資產- 一份讀者廣泛的報紙。就算他退出，這價值也會體現出來，而其他人也有興趣。
- 黎先生或許會繼續保留資金，並投入資金於虧錢的生意，例如當我們大部分人都減少收看時間的時候，並投入多於時間於網上及網絡視頻下，加入高度競爭的的香港電視媒體生意。但是，我們認為黎先生已經在台灣電視市場，所以他應該和香港電視市場保持距離，不像另一位種類差不多的企業家城市電訊(1137)的王維基。黎先生是一位對社會輿論更敏感的人-他不想因投入新生意，而不向股東分派股息，導致對他有壞的印象。所以這是他以收購動畫業務，而不以向股東集資的方法，向台灣電視業務投入資金。
如果黎先生真的有興趣投入新生意，他應該用派息所得的錢自行投資。所得的44億股息，按他持有74%的股權計算，大約也有32.5億股息讓他去玩。意向書會在2012年11月17日變成正式合約，並在2012年12月17日完成。這應是一個對黎先生及其股東們快樂的聖誕節。
(2) 評論
筆者認為，David Webb的現金估值基礎有一些問題。根據這篇文章，David Webb 並無計算其盈利，只就其所持現金著眼，所以筆者也就現金上討論一下。
在現金上，我相信David Webb 漏計以下事項:
(1) 練台生的賠償 因當初練台生以14億新台幣(3.71億)表達購入壹電視意向時，付出了1.4億的訂金，所以取消收購時需賠償雙倍訂金。
(2) 壹電視的虧損
上年，壹傳媒全年虧損11.68億元，而出售是在10月16日完成，所以壹傳媒亦應需佔這6個半月的虧損，約6.327億元。
(3) 財產交易所得稅
在台灣進行財產交易，需要繳交這項所得稅，假設這項交易在台灣境內進行，以交易作價減台灣的非流動資產19.21942億計算，獲利約27.191億元，以適用稅率20%計算，即需交5.438億元，這金額也許只有高估，或許稅項一概免除，但為保守計，亦以該5.438億元作為稅項撥備。
(4) 台灣借的銀行貸款 根據壹傳媒年報，估計4.45億元是向台灣銀行借貸，但出售時這項貸款或許不需償還，所以亦不應計入負債，所以可以加回現金中。
計及以上各項因素後，壹傳媒的現金數量如下:
另外，在交易後，壹傳媒仍可保留在台灣的固定資產，據各方估算，金額約60至70億新台幣(約15.91億至18.86億)，而在帳面上，這部分物業因為屬於經營資產，故每年作折舊，並未作估值，在2012年3月的金額約7.1億元，所以或許在改列為投資物業後約獲得8.81億元至11.76億元的特殊利潤，因在出售這項業務後仍會出租予辜仲諒，所以會有新增租金收入，以台灣商業地產的年租金回報率3%計算，每年仍可有約4,773萬至5,658萬的租金收入，對業績也有正面影響。但由於爽報及未來虧損業務不能確定，加上報紙銷量正在減少，所以香港報紙銷售的利潤仍是不太明朗，但相信仍可保留過往一半的利潤，約2億元，所以一年利潤大約可能保持約2.5億左右，每股大約10仙，剩餘業務市盈率約2倍，是否便宜，請各位看官自行判斷。
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Monkey with the FCUK t-shirt
Always love the Saturday morning, especially after a raining night, the air is so clean and fresh.Checked the overnight markets. DOW closed at 10,193.39 +125.38 (1.25%). The content, I saw a group of monkey.
As I always tell others (also myself) to get the market defination right before elaborating further, how to profit from the market.
My defination of market;
(1) A place where legalized all the conman job. OR
(2) A place where, monkey see monkey do.
See the below content;
“Technically speaking we’re very oversold -- really that’s the understatement of the year,” said Walter Todd, who helps manage about $800 million at Greenwood Capital in Greenwood, South Carolina. “I’d rather be buying now than I would three weeks ago.”
“It’s an enormous document -- the devil will be in the details,” said David Katz, chief investment officer at Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. in New York, which manages $1.2 billion. “The early read is that it’s not as onerous as some feared.”
That is why I'm reminding myself, this is a typical;
Monkey see, monkey do market. After event's bull.................
Please be reminded, always STAY AWAY from the market.
Judge and analyse all the available facts and informations, make the very own decisions. Not necessarily has to be a contrarian, but it's a must.
If I'm wrong, at least I am fully awared of what is going on.VIGILANT in analysing all the facts and informations obtained and after the decisions, monitoring the risks stringently.
Don't be the monkey, with the FCUK t-shirt.
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Lunch with the FT: Guo Guangchang
2014.11.14
Over vegetarian food, the billionaire behind China’s biggest private conglomerate talks about Cultural Revolution-era cuisine, learning from eastern and western sages, and what tai chi and investing have in common
W
2 East Fuxing Road Shanghai, 200010
hen a rich Chinese businessman is about to enter a room, my radar usually picks it up well in advance – the give-away is the sound of underlings tripping over themselves in the corridor to get out of the great man’s path.
But there’s no scurrying and kowtowing before Guo Guangchang arrives for lunch in the management canteen of his headquarters at the unfashionable end of the Shanghai Bund. Suddenly he’s just there, a slight bespectacled man looking like a cross between a librarian and the migrant worker he might have been – if he hadn’t built an $8bn conglomerate.
Guo is not China’s richest man; nor is he the flashiest, nor – according to him – even the cleverest. But in his 47 years, he has risen from peasant penury to having so much money that the desire to be rich no longer gets him up in the morning.
Fosun, the group he co-founded with three university friends in 1992, is the largest private conglomerate in China. It owns big stakes in the Shanghai hospital where my children get their flu shots, the cake shop where they get their birthday cakes, the holiday village where they’d love to spend half-term, quite apart from a fair amount of the ground we walk on (through its vast Shanghai property holdings).
It has also recently tried (and failed) to buy Forbes magazine, is trying (and will probably manage) to buy Club Med and has already bought Portugal’s largest insurance group, Caixa Seguros. Fosun has made 12 overseas acquisitions so far this year and there’s a good chance it will be coming to a country near you soon, looking to buy a company you know well. So this seems the ideal time to try to figure out what makes Guo Guangchang tick.
According to Guo, it’s a mixture of Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, and Warren Buffett. He says he finds inspiration for his investment decisions from China’s oldest sages (and that other one from Omaha). He is also a devotee of tai chi, the Asian martial art that he practises as often as he can. But the first thing we discuss is food – and not just because we’re having lunch.
Like many Chinese of his generation, however, Guo seems more nostalgic than critical of those darkest days of China’s recent history. He becomes positively lyrical on the topic of his mother’s signature dish from that period, meigancai(literally translated as “mouldy dried vegetables”), which he says tastes best with a generous dollop of pork lard.Food (and the lack thereof) was a big issue in China when Guo was born in the eastern province of Zhejiang in 1967. The country had recently embarked on Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, resulting in widespread economic and social turmoil. He recalls that his family weren’t starving but neither were they banqueting (basic foods were rationed by how much each family contributed to their Communist production team). “We could definitely eat our fill but the food could be very bad,” he says, recalling how his mother “used to plant sweet potatoes secretly to feed us”.
Podcast
Patti Waldmeir talks to Guo Guangchang about his philosophy of life and about getting rich in China.
“We were poor then. We used to steam a bowl of rice and then put one layer of meigancai on top of the rice. Then the pork fat would melt into the rice. It smelled very good. Even today, it still makes my mouth water whenever I think about it,” he says, “meigancai is our nostalgia.”
As well as acting like Guo’s own version of Proust’s madeleine, this sun-dried pickle also became his staple ration at boarding school: in China most rural children, including those from peasant families like Guo’s, have no choice but to board in the nearest town if they are to attend school at all. His mother loaded a pot of meigancai with lard and as many pieces of pork as the family could spare, and he carried enough to school to last the whole week.
He roars with delight when I ask whether we’ll be eating meigancai at our lunch, served in a private room of Fosun’s free all-vegetarian management canteen. But it seems we won’t – not because this earthy dish is not grand enough but because it’s not vegetarian enough. As he slurps a bowl of steaming handmade noodles, and takes an oversized mouthful of the kind of sweet potato his mother used to plant, I ask Guo if he is a vegetarian. He says he isn’t, though he spent a month off meat when he was mourning his mother’s death, since she was a devout Buddhist. If possible, he also eats a meat-free meal in the canteen every day at lunchtime.
Today’s fare is cold steamed sweetcorn, sautéed winter melon with black mushrooms, okra, spinach, and potato with cowpea. At most business lunches in China this would be lubricated by a type of firewater known as baijiu, but not here. It’s all part of the Guo approach to life and getting rich – do nothing by extremes, whether it’s food, drink or market speculation. Tai chi, he continues, is about keeping the extremes of yin and yang in balance.
What, I ask, has all this got to do with buying Portuguese insurance companies? Guo takes a stab at explaining how it applies to his investment decisions.
“The aim of tai chi is not to strike first to gain dominance over an opponent but to wait and hit at the right moment,” he says. “That is, to be the first one to take action after feeling the change in momentum. Investing is similar to doing tai chi. No one holds a permanent speed advantage in the market due to the limits of human intelligence and vision. Your advantage comes from your ability to feel the change faster and take decisive action faster.”
Though any tai chi master worth his salt will tell you that it takes years to understand the first thing about this martial-cum-spiritual art form – and I know I have only grasped a fraction of his meaning – I do have some idea of the whole “feel the change” thing. Having recently tried tai chi, I learnt how, by simply extending one finger down my outer thigh, I could alter my balance to the point where even the instructor’s determined pummelling couldn’t topple me.
Guo says he used to practise tai chi almost every day; even now that he’s too busy to practise more than a couple of times a week, he “can still do tai chi even by sitting” – including while having lunch, it seems. “You see, I rarely sit like this,” he says, slouching for emphasis. “I usually sit like this,” he explains, perching upright on the edge of the chair. “In this way, your qi is flowing smoothly inside your body.” He adds that this helps him “have a good mental outlook” and “recover from general physical complaints”.
My grasp of the Chinese medico-spiritual concept of qi or “spirit” is about as weak as my grasp of tai chi. But Guo is so intent on helping me understand that he breaks into a rare bit of English to insist, “If you just practise the movements for five or 10 minutes, it’s good for your health. Even sometimes during conference calls, I listen to the other side while practising some movements,” he says. Staff say he’s been known to break into spontaneous tai chi in the coffee breaks during tough dealmaking sessions.
. . .
The influence of eastern spirituality on his investment strategy doesn’t end here. Buddhism, Guo explains, teaches you that “everything starts from your heart, and feeling the heart of others is the most important doctrine in Buddhism. In doing business that means seeing things through other people’s eyes. I feel that doing business is just like practising Buddhism. Money is not your only purpose. Your purpose is to make things better for other people, and in the end, money will come as a result.”
Fosun Corporate Building
2 East Fuxing Road Shanghai, 200010
Spinach
Okra
Mushroom and wax gourd
Potato and cowpea
Vegetable noodle soup
Sweet potato
Sweetcorn
Total: Free
“Business,” he adds, “is also the best form of charity” (or that is what he tells Buddhists who come asking for donations). “By making a company successful, you can provide more employment, and, if you treat your staff well, then your business itself becomes a charity.”
Guo has been quoted as saying that intelligence isn’t the key to wealth. Instead, this is something known as xinli. It’s a term that many otherwise articulate people struggle to translate; this is how Guo explains it: “Some people make the wrong decisions but that’s not because they don’t have superior intelligence but because they can’t resist the temptation of the monsters hiding in their heart.”
For example, “Many people bought subordinated debt in the US before the subprime crisis when they knew clearly it was problematic but they knew if they didn’t buy it, their bonus that year would be reduced, so they made a decision based on short-term interests, not because they were ignorant of the risk.” Those people didn’t have xinli. Admitting when you’ve made a mistake is another form of xinli, he says – even if you are the chief executive and you think you should always be right. Think of Forrest Gump, he says: “He wasn’t intelligent but he was very successful”.
Guo also uses the example of Warren Buffett, the man on whom he has modelled his strategy of building a conglomerate that uses insurance funds to invest in widely diverse businesses. “I don’t think he’s been successful because he is smarter than others,” says Guo. It’s more about investment discipline, sensitivity to the market, and taking the long view, he adds. Those things, it seems, are also xinli.
Buddhism and Buffettism aside, there is another sage whom Guo credits with his success: Deng Xiaoping, the leader who steered China through wide-ranging economic reforms after Mao’s death and who is famous for his (possibly apocryphal) saying, “To get rich is glorious”. Guo says: “If [Deng] hadn’t distributed the land to the peasants, we would never have had enough food to eat. Most [villages] in Zhejiang were starving”. He says that, without Deng’s reforms, he could never have attended university, “and then there would be no Fosun”.
For Guo’s company name reflects his treasured university education: Fosun means “star of Fudan University”, his alma mater and Shanghai’s most prestigious academic institution. But he didn’t just get a philosophy degree from Fudan: he honed his business skills there by selling bread to hungry classmates when they finished studying at 11 each night. He earned Rmb5 a night, which seems a paltry sum until he points out that his monthly expenses were only Rmb30 at that time.
After graduation in 1989, he had planned to study overseas but, instead, used the tuition money to found Fosun with three classmates (all of whom remain involved). Today, 22 years after the company was founded, it has investments from steel to mining, tourism to pharmaceuticals.
I hope you can understand we were poor for a very long time. I hope you can understand our desire for a good life and money. Let’s not rush to criticise that
This kind of “Zhejiang-to-riches” tale is not totally unheard of in modern China: Jack Ma, founder of internet giant Alibaba, is also a Zhejiang boy – and a fellow fan of tai chi. Guo is often compared with Ma but the Fosun chief says he’s not as clever as the ecommerce tycoon (nor, for that matter, so good at tai chi): “No one is as smart as Jack Ma,” Guo says, exploding with mirth. “He’s a . . . what do you call it . . . an alien. I’m just a normal guy,” albeit one with a personal wealth of $4.3bn, according to Forbes’ China Rich List.
Talk turns to more recent developments. Fosun has been battling for more than a year to take majority control of French holiday chain Club Med, and it recently paid $725m to buy New York’s Chase Manhattan Plaza. But its most important strategic move recently was to spend €1bn buying Caixa Seguros, an insurance group that gives him the funds he needs to buy overseas companies that can capitalise on China’s growing affluence, such as Club Med, without taking on more debt at a time when rating agencies already say Fosun has too much borrowing.
“Owning that insurance company means we own €13bn in insurance assets that we can use for investment,” he says, adding that assets from the Portuguese group funded Fosun’s $100m stake in Alibaba’s recent US listing. But, I say, you can’t just milk the Portuguese company for funds, you also have to sell insurance to Portuguese people (and deal with insurance regulations that are very different from those in China), isn’t that a bit difficult? “It’s not the first time we have invested in an insurance company. We understand insurance,” says Guo. This has the ring of famous last words but his confidence won’t be shaken. Buffett uses insurance to drive investment, and Guo is determined to do that too.
It’s time to finish up but Guo has hardly touched his noodles, and I still want to know: what does a boy who grew up in a peasant family during the Cultural Revolution think about the current state of the soon-to-be biggest economy on earth? Pundits wring their hands over greed, ostentation, and the decline of traditional values. Is Guo worried that China will just collapse under the weight of its own acquisitiveness?
He rebukes me gently. “I hope you can understand that we were poor for a very long time. I hope you can understand our desire for a good life and for money. Let’s not rush to criticise it. That is my opinion”.
He adds: “I believe Chinese culture, including Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism, is very balanced. It will lead people back to what they really need in their hearts. When people are rich enough, what they hope for will be different. At the beginning, a man wants to be rich, he wants to show off his wealth, it’s normal. But, gradually, he finds it’s quite boring. He will gradually find that inner spiritual balance is more important so he will turn to that.”
With that, the philosopher entrepreneur heads out, possibly to buy another famous name near you.
-------------------------------------------
Rise of a business empire
1992 Guo founds Guangxin Technology Development Company, a market research group, with classmates from Fudan University, using Rmb38,000 as the company’s founding capital. Guangxin subsequently takes a founding stake in Fosun Group.
1994 Expands investments to property and pharmaceuticals.
2004 Fosun International founded in Hong Kong, listed on main board of Hong Kong stock exchange in 2007.
2010 Acquires 7.1 per cent of Club Med, the first time a quoted Chinese group has taken a direct holding in a listed French company.
2012 Sets up joint venture Pramerica Fosun Life Insurance with Prudential Financial. Also invests in Minsheng Bank, China’s largest privately owned lender.
2014 Wins bidding war for an 80 per cent stake in Portugal’s largest insurance group, Caixa Seguros, for €1bn. Other investments include Malaysian restaurant chain Secret Recipe, and US film production venture Studio 8. Raises bid for Club Med.
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Get along with you？你想錯了
2016-04-25 TCW業務部新兵Adam試用期間犯下疏失，讓公司丟了大客戶。但Adam和主管密談後卻帶著笑臉走出辦公室，說儘管老闆臉色鐵青，仍不忘用「Get along with you!」（真是和你合得來）安慰他。Adam以為這是一句好聽話，殊不知他想錯了…… 【關鍵用法】 Get along with you! 【你以為】和你相處得來！ 【其實是】去你的臭傢伙！ 解析：這句耳熟能詳的片語常指「與某人和睦相處」，不過，口語上也常用來表達惱怒、不耐煩或不相信對方的話。意指何者，得留意前、後文語氣。 例句：Get along with you! HoW can you treat our important client like that! (去你的臭傢伙!你怎麼可以那樣對待我們的大客戶!) Stuff you! [你以為]吃飽點! [其實是]想得美! 解析：stuff最常見的意思確是『填滿』或『吃飽』，但祈使句stuff you或get stuffed可不是真的招呼你吃飽一點，而是帶著輕蔑意味的回語。 例句：You think I’m going to work for that miserable wage!Stuff you! (你以為我會為了那麼一丁點微薄的薪水賣命？想得美!) Your behavior gets my back up. [你以為]你的作為力挺我。 [其實是]你的作為冒犯我。 解析：看到back up很容易馬上想成撐腰、支持，但其實to get/put somebody’s back up是一句俚語，意思是『惹某人生氣了』。 例句：My mentor yelled at me without any reason，which reaIly put my back up. (我的前輩無端對我又吼又叫的，真令人光火。) 世界公民文化中心獨家授權 撰文者湯名潔 | ||
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I always agree with my boss
#我認我無聊 #人前人後 #口嗰句vs心嗰句 #提防影射認明真身 #IAlwaysAgreeWithMyBoss
&&&&&&&&
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拉開褲鏈： Get it done with
1 : GS(14)@2011-09-06 22:19:55http://hk.apple.nextmedia.com/te ... 376&art_id=15583771
Peter與 Mary是同事，各自在公司外都有伴侶，但閒時在公司內，他們都會有說笑般的調情話，例如：「若然你沒有男朋友，我一定追你」或「我雖然有男朋友，但最想嫁的卻是你」等等。因為他們的無忌諱，同事們看在眼內，通常只一笑置之或間中揶揄一番，逗得他們都很享受這種不用太負責任的調情樂趣。未幾， Peter與女友分了手，眾同事也知曉，因為大家關係好，下班後不時增加 happy hour局或 K局來幫 Peter散心。這類局多了，互相的感情更好，同事們亦因而得知 Mary與男友正鬧得不快，推波助瀾情節便展開。局照約，但眾人藉口離開的時間越多，好讓這對癡男怨女有更多單對單相聚機會。
....
2 : Wilbur(1931)@2011-09-06 22:58:41
"Get it done with"?
我見識少,聽都未聽過...
3 : GS(14)@2011-09-06 23:01:37
即是點?
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Lunch with the FC：我是一個 Accidental Banker
1 : GS(14)@2012-01-27 23:42:24http://www1.hk.apple.nextmedia.c ... 307&art_id=16018580
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Lunch with the FC：「香港人批評自己叻過讚美自己」
1 : GS(14)@2012-02-25 15:41:51http://www.zkiz.com/news.php?id=11433
在投資圈子打滾一段時間，性格會變得犬儒，對許多事都存懷疑，投資界永遠充滿險惡，越成功的投資者遇到越多不誠實個案，越成功的投資者越犬儒，這是成功投資者的職業病。投資者不願意自己變成一個自己未必喜歡的人，但想深一層，工作佔人生的時間太長，工作難免無聲無息的改變我們，我們不容易把自己的性格從工作中抽離。能接受自己的種種不是，同時教曉自己去發掘身邊人和事的美麗，已經是不容易培養的特質。
「我說這麼多無非想說一件事，我所做的毫不特別。投資要有過人的自信，我很幸運，上天賜予我在投資方面的一點天份，做出一點成績，但如果我做人不懂得處處顯出謙卑，我會好嬲自己。」
地下故事 考古掘出動人歷史
之前我說雷剛只接受了我的兩個訪問，嚴格上是不對的，因為雷剛最近在投資以外領域成為新聞人物。他是軍事考古發燒友，最近在赤柱發現戰時遺留的手榴彈，報警後被記者訪問，故事刊登在《壹週刊》。雷剛告訴我多個感人故事，關於香港人在兩次大戰的英勇事迹，這些不是人云亦云，雷剛以考古驗證，全部有憑有據。他說考古過程中，走遍新界遍遠村落，這些村民跟其他香港人同樣美麗，話匣子一打開，可衝破語言障礙，講出一個個動人故事。
港義勇軍 以寡敵眾
其中一個關於香港義勇軍，一隊由中國人組成的機槍團，這些軍人以寡敵眾，在日軍猛烈攻擊下，誓死不投降，最後全軍覆沒。雷剛指英軍在戰後不大高調表揚中國軍人的貢獻，英方史料記載不全，反而日軍有詳盡記載。雷剛走去靖國神社翻查資料，日方資料指日軍攻了 15次才攻破。日軍對義勇軍的英勇心存敬意，動手把屍體埋葬，地點在陽明山莊附近。
雷剛最近成為了父親，我問他還有沒有時間考古，他說時間的確少了，不過最大改變不是時間。「以前拿起一枚炸彈，我不會驚，但現在心境不同了。」
投資民主化 餘生專注做一件事
「我 99%肯定我餘下四分之一的人生，會專注做一件事。」這件事是雷剛二十多年投資生涯累積的精華，他希望用來服務香港人，他說的是退休投資計劃。香港人談起強積金，大都咬牙切齒，都知道二三十年之後，一部份的強積金會去了基金公司的口袋，這些每年收取高昂管理費的基金公司，是強積金的唯一肯定贏家。香港人都知道問題所在，但不知道解決方法，因為彷彿這是唯一一條路。
雷剛很用心向我解釋他的主意，重點是他懂得怎樣做，而且金融產品日新月異，以前不可能的今日變得可能。我一聽就明白大意，但執行上非常複雜。詳情我不說了，我會考慮多花時間去幫他實行這件事。雷剛的條件很清晰：這件事不牟利，利益歸於香港人。
「香港人壽命越來越長，大部份人對退休後財務安排無甚認識，包括一些所謂投資有道的人。」
「我不是想認叻，過去十多年我建立了一個往績，證明我有能力為投資者在一個較長的時間框架中，以極低的管理費用，為退休人士製造不損購買能力的長期投資回報。」
蔡東豪
2 : GS(14)@2012-02-25 15:42:51
http://realforum.zkiz.com/thread.php?tid=29042
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Lunch with the FC－ 莫乃光： IT界選民應該傾向民主
1 : GS(14)@2012-08-24 11:54:54http://hk.apple.nextmedia.com/financeestate/art/20120824/16631683
由做同事開始，認識莫乃光十多年，一直保持聯絡。這些年從一個距離觀察他為 IT業奔走發聲，為民主站在前線，我認同莫乃光為人，並以認識他為榮。吃完這餐飯，我赫然發現，影響著莫乃光的環境，包括他成長年代、家庭、教育、工作等，竟似曾相識，我認同莫乃光，因為我也是莫乃光。
莫乃光是2012年立會選舉資訊科技界候選人，對手是四年前擊敗他的譚偉豪。從表面看，我支持莫乃光可能有點怪異。譚偉豪和我同屬電子工業界，我們多年來在不同場合碰面，覺得他為人和藹友善，為 IT和工業界有過付出，而且他任主席的權智（601）是精電（710）客戶。從功利角度看，我理應支持譚偉豪，但問題是，他的對手是莫乃光。
莫乃光選陸羽，我面有難色，訪問需時個多小時，環境雖不至鴉雀無聲，但起碼要有少許私隱，我即時想像到中午要跟人搭枱的情景。他隨即補一句，由他訂位。我先到陸羽地下，見到卡位一壺茶上貼著「莫先生」字條，我知道莫乃光在陸羽有些少地位。他解釋他父親以前在中環上班，是陸羽熟客，他跟父親常來光顧。
莫乃光不諱言，他不是出身基層，從未住過屋邨，父親在外國讀書，五六十年代香港人有機會去外國留學，應該是一種身份象徵。莫乃光屬戰後嬰兒潮「水尾」，是呂大樂《四代香港人》中的第二代，第一代無私的建立根基，由第二代享盡香港經濟起飛成果。第二代「水尾」在幸福中成長，對政治及家國意識薄弱。第二代「水尾」未受過七十年代初期學運洗禮，生長於沒大事發生的七八十年代，形成較務實作風。從這背景走到接近政治舞台中央位置，我有興趣知道莫乃光的政治路途。
莫乃光故事由他六七十年代成長在一個當時算富裕的家庭開始，父母管教開明，中學就讀香港華仁，受耶穌會自由思想薰陶，在美國讀大學，畢業後在美國 IT界工作。
六四事件代表政治意識啟蒙點，他從遠處感受民運的悲壯，激動過後緊隨香港進入民主政制進程，九十年代回流香港，以不同身份參與香港社會。我以前未認真想過，原來莫乃光的故事即是我的故事，只要把美國換為加拿大， IT轉為財經，我的成長環境跟莫乃光基本沒分別。
[莫乃光當年就讀華仁的學生照。] 莫乃光當年就讀華仁的學生照。
八十年代赴美 六四認識中國
莫乃光在香港華仁高我一年級，互相不認識，他說他不算特別活躍，在那年代的香港華仁，學生可以很活躍。莫乃光會考成績優異，完成中六後去美國讀書。八十年代內地和香港政治離莫乃光太遠，他反而對美國政治感興趣，看很多關於美國政治人物的書。假如莫乃光是美國人，他屬哪一個黨？「我相信是民主黨，始終接近那一套自由思想。」
莫乃光87年碩士畢業後，在美國 IT公司工作，過著正常美國華人生活，直至89年6月某日。「我不算是先知先覺的一群，我是到坦克入城才感到事態嚴重，我很記得這一日，我病了沒上班，在家不停看 CNN，之前我對中國政治全無認識。」
莫乃光民運路跟互聯網有關，他很早使用互聯網，六四民運後，很多在美國的香港人在網上組織群組，提供資訊，交換觀點，他屬於網上活躍分子。那時候互聯網未普及，網民選擇不多，他們的群組連結全美關心民運的香港人，由東岸到西岸。莫乃光那時候住在麻省，他跟住在波士頓的香港人組織起來，連同美國多個大城市，90年組成「美國香港華人聯會」。
聯會在九十年代初期活躍，工作包括支援在美國的民運人士、舉辦講座、參與美國政府遊說工作等，莫乃光曾任聯會副會長，他特別提起一個人：「當時有一個人特別重視我們這班在美國的香港人，是『華叔』司徒華，他很早便到美國探訪我們，一直和我們保持聯絡，後來李柱銘和朱耀明牧師也來過。」聯會仍存在，但已不大活躍，很多當年中堅分子也回流香港，不少在香港高等學府任教職。20多年過去，隨著環境改變，很多人對六四民運有「新見解」，不想提起這一段歷史。
我問莫乃光當年戰友，是否願意提起這段歷史？「可能我們跟內地和香港隔著一段距離，看法抽離一點，想法比較天真，我們當時支持六四民運全無居心，無想過上位，也無想過秋後算賬。
「我們這班人大部份到今日仍有聯絡，我不為意有人想刻意抹去這段歷史。我競選團隊中便有當年戰友，還有幾位戰友在 IT界工作，多年來一直公開支持我。」
94年莫乃光回流，加入于品海的智才工作，負責集團 IT部門，當年智才業務廣泛，他參與旗下不同公司的 IT運作。智才其中一個新項目，是成立互聯網供應商（ ISP），這時候是95年。項目開始不久，智才陷入財困，幾個投資者向智才收購 ISP項目，莫乃光和部份管理層團隊隨項目離開智才，新公司是 HKNet，是香港第一代 ISP。
[莫乃光稱，選擇民主這條路，過程很自然。] 莫乃光稱，選擇民主這條路，過程很自然。
94年回流 政府眼中 IT專家
HKNet曾經是香港最大 ISP之一，後來被中建電訊（138）和日本 NTT收購，我在科網泡沫年代曾搭上科網列車，在中建電訊年代和莫乃光做過同事。當時莫乃光是香港互聯網供應商協會會長，是業界主要領導者，關於科網大小事情，都見到莫乃光身影，他是科網年代紅人。
莫乃光仍記得95年香港多個 ISP涉嫌無牌經營，這事件被炒作為國際新聞，影射香港回歸前喪失言論自由，於是政府急急放人，並鼓勵互聯網業界聯合起來，找出一些業界領導者，方便跟政府部門溝通。「那時候所有人包括政府都感到 IT的重要，但大家對 IT的認識不深，我稍為有 IT經驗，被視為專家，忽然間好多人找我。」
2000年開始，莫乃光出任多份公職，包括中央政策組、消費者委員會、醫管局等，因為 IT越來越重要。過去十多年，每逢甚麼關於 IT事情發生，傳媒需找 IT業界給予意見，市民都會見到斯斯文文、說話流暢的莫乃光出現。莫乃光代表 IT業，整條路途合情合理，但六四激情過後，連民運人士也投入正常生活，莫乃光回流後沒參與本地政治，最積極政治活動是每年去維園出席燭光集會，「民主莫乃光」是怎樣走出來？
「 IT業界以前不算政治化，單仲偕由1998至2008年出任 IT界別議員，連任時政治氣氛也不算太激烈。建制派覺得需要組織起來，統籌做好選舉工作，我相信是2004年選舉失利之後，而第一場跟民主派重要對壘是2006年特首選委選舉。」這一年選委 IT界選舉，單仲偕帶領6人民主派名單， IT業界組成另一張20人名單，諷刺的是，當年莫乃光和譚偉豪同在這張業界名單上。莫乃光笑說：「好快就發覺同床異夢。」
06年爭做選委 行出民主路
換句話說， IT界第一次感受到濃厚政治意識，大約是2006年，選委選舉後， IT界知道這界別從此不一樣，從此 IT界選舉以政治取向分界，壁壘分明。莫乃光變得政治化，很大程度是因為香港變得政治化，是香港政治環境要求他作政治取態。
「我選擇民主這條路，過程很自然，其實我沒認真去考慮過，我不覺得有其他選擇。」我同意，可能不是他去找民主，是民主找到莫乃光，一切跟他的成長環境有關。
「我想我不算激進，肯定不是逢中必反，我最不能忍受是建制派私下對我說：『你忍嚇啦，中國會變』。變？我不算激進，這麼多年變了甚麼？我見到太多所謂親中人士，其實是一個利益集團，他們親中全是為自己利益，而不是堅持信念。我也認識真心親中人士，雖然我不同意他們的信念，至少我尊重他們。」當香港政治環境變了，連 IT人也要表態，莫乃光的抉擇來得舒服自然，沒有悲壯口號，沒有腦交戰掙扎，他就是選這條路。
根據職業訓練局統計，香港有7萬人從事 IT工作，但 IT界別只有6700選民，少於10%，其中5%是公司票。 IT選民資格複雜至不能三言兩語解釋清楚，主要是會員制，即是選民須屬於某些會的會員，才有資格投票。
IT界別選舉條例混亂，普羅市民沒法理解，過去多次傳出種票指控。對於 IT選舉界別組成，莫乃光有很多話要說。
「7萬 IT人，其實我認為數目不止此數，只有少於10%有權投票，包括5%公司票，其他選民須每年交會費，對不想交會費的年輕選民已經是不公平。感覺上， IT人普遍年輕，但 IT界選民平均年紀不小，原因是選民資格扭曲這個界別的代表性。」
「 IT界選民應該傾向民主， IT人不可能保守，因為 IT講求創新，追求資訊自由流通，工作上遇到言論自由受到限制， IT人第一身感覺到。自由、平等、開放的概念在 IT行業更切身感受到。」
「建制派在很多功能組別的賣點，是幫選民回內地做生意，打開內地市場，因為建制派跟內地關係較好，可以直接幫到選民。這一招在 IT界我認為是反智，香港 IT界不應日夜想住回內地做生意，內地資訊環境被封閉，香港 IT界應該做好自己工作，發展本土 IT業，吸引全世界 IT企業來香港設立基地，從香港面向世界，包括打進內地市場。」
搞 IT要 Un-China 發揮優勢
「香港 IT界的優勢，是跟內地的不同。」莫乃光說出我多年不停重複的「溫布頓效應」，香港模式的核心是 Un-China，香港應該推銷的，是我們和內地的不同。
「香港不要學習內地 IT業，香港人根本不容易掌握內地 IT業，太多禁區，有幾多間香港或外國 IT公司在內地做得成功？」
「內地 IT業缺乏創新精神，知識產權保護不足，政治審查剝削內地人知情權利，例如在內地不可能開設寫 facebook Apps的公司，因為在內地無得用 facebook。」我都好想問那些親中人士，點解在內地不能用 facebook？
莫乃光說得好，不少香港人抗拒民主，是從功利角度出發，因為內地商機大，香港人應該好好把握，不要談政治，刺痛內地人不想談的課題。成年人一邊教孩子不要避開問題，自己一邊避開問題，一邊說服自己，做事一單還一單，不談民主，生意照做是對的。
假如香港人不發聲，指出內地 IT封閉的反智，反而改變自己來遷就內地，香港 IT界只會「大陸化」。
「香港 IT業的出路，是保存香港的優勢，即是凸顯香港跟內地的不同，香港政府其實很清楚，政府唔敢講等我講。」
「我認識每一個內地大型 IT公司老闆，都有海外居留權，不少擁有香港身份證，這些 IT人最清楚自由的重要。」
和莫乃光吃這頓飯，對我思維衝擊好大，我從來沒細心想過自己的經歷，但一路聽莫乃光的故事，彷彿一路聽到自己的故事。我早年從事財經界，第一身感受到市場開放的重要，財經人不管為人為己，也應該支持民主。假如我先做工業，我的世界觀很可能跟現在不同。原來兩個背景相若的人，安排他們有相同的經歷——包括成長年代、家庭、讀書、工作，得出來的政治信念也可能很相似。莫乃光從小養成尋真精神，扭曲真理迎合內地，從來不是他的一杯茶。我肯定他的同時，也在肯定自己。
再輸，怎辦？「唔想去諗，但肯定不是我政治前途的終結。」我想佢贏。
華仁不 Hard sell
舊生聚會，當然有提起大家的華仁歲月。今日回想，華仁最令我們回味，是學校的開放和包容。
那時候仍有不少外籍神父任教，他們無私地把自己的光輝歲月送給香港，一生奉獻教育，每個被他們教導過的學生，也不會忘記。
莫乃光記得：「在天主教環境讀書，從沒感到有壓力要信教，學校和神父沒 Hard sell過，至少我不覺得有。」今日我們在討論國民教育，神父在生的話，我知道他們會怎樣做。
鬼仔幾時叻過香港仔
莫乃光是高材生，有一套讀書心得。我問他在美國大學的成績，他說不算優異，他的解釋是，最初兩年還可以，最後兩年美國本土學生發力，很容易追過頭。這現象我似曾相識，我接觸很多這類個案，自己也經歷過。
「可能是香港教育制度的問題，香港學生四平八穩地答問題，答得不錯。去外國讀書，香港學生普遍根底好，特別懂得考試，最初成績可以很好。不過大學後期開始鼓勵學生天馬行空，做 Project，寫 Essay，香港教育制度的不足，立即現形，鬼仔話咁易過我哋頭。」
這方面我的經歷跟莫乃光有分歧，讀大學時我進入的商學院百分百用 Case Study教學，無得背書，我一開始便被鬼仔過頭，成績從來未叻過。
【陸羽茶室】香港中環史丹利街24號
蜜汁叉燒$110
瑞士牛腩飯$96
菜遠牛腩煲$190
蓮蓉粽$40
蓮藕汁糕$38
茶（ x2）$56
【總數連加一$583】
2 : 寧采臣(25759)@2012-08-24 12:24:33
在天主教環境讀書，從沒感到有壓力要信教，學校和神父沒 Hard sell過，至少我不覺得有。」今日我們在討論國民教育，神父在生的話，我知道他們會怎樣做。
完全同意, 好懷念那些年
而家香港立立亂, 希望做多幾年野可以移民外國
3 : GS(14)@2012-08-24 12:45:16
2樓提及
在天主教環境讀書，從沒感到有壓力要信教，學校和神父沒 Hard sell過，至少我不覺得有。」今日我們在討論國民教育，神父在生的話，我知道他們會怎樣做。
完全同意, 好懷念那些年
而家香港立立亂, 希望做多幾年野可以移民外國
去得邊?
4 : 寧采臣(25759)@2012-08-24 12:47:20
3樓提及英美坡澳, 好多選擇, 就係唔鐘意被同化2樓提及
在天主教環境讀書，從沒感到有壓力要信教，學校和神父沒 Hard sell過，至少我不覺得有。」今日我們在討論國民教育，神父在生的話，我知道他們會怎樣做。
完全同意, 好懷念那些年
而家香港立立亂, 希望做多幾年野可以移民外國
去得邊?
5 : greatsoup38(830)@2012-08-24 12:53:42
我最多唔睇報紙囉
6 : 寧采臣(25759)@2012-08-24 12:56:12
5樓提及最恐怖係洗腦既人好叻,唔會hard sell迫你洗, 即係被洗腦同化都唔知
我最多唔睇報紙囉
7 : greatsoup38(830)@2012-08-24 13:09:32
6樓提及5樓提及最恐怖係洗腦既人好叻,唔會hard sell迫你洗, 即係被洗腦同化都唔知
我最多唔睇報紙囉
咁我都無辦法
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Vegas Bet on Chinese VIPs Raises Red Flags With Feds
1 : GS(14)@2012-12-08 21:43:22http://online.wsj.com/article/SB ... 48160626366488.html
AS VEGAS—It could easily be mistaken for Chinese territory. On the
36th floor of the Venetian hotel and casino sits the "Paiza," a unique
gambling salon and suites for high rollers from Asia, adorned with
traditional serene Chinese paintings and a karaoke room. Gambling tables
accommodate as few as one player, for patrons who prefer more privacy.
Las Vegas is on a winning streak with rich
Chinese gamblers, but the WSJ's Kate O'Keeffe explains why big bets are
raising red flags with the U.S. authorities.
The area is
named after a passport given centuries ago to important Chinese
officials and guests. And the importance of the guests is certainly not
in question: These "whales" of gambling are betting anywhere from
$10,000 to $400,000—per hand.
For Las Vegas Sands Corp.,
LVS -0.43%
owner of the Venetian, and a handful of other casino companies in Las
Vegas, this select niche has become a godsend for an industry stuck in a
financial losing streak for much of the past four years. Jumping on a
business that is virtually invisible to most casino goers, industry
giants like Sands, MGM Resorts International
MGM -0.36%
and Wynn Resorts Ltd.,
WYNN -1.07%
are rolling out the red carpet for an elite group of gamblers, and scoring some remarkable jackpots.
Enlarge Image
Triad Story: Connection Seen to Las Vegas Operators
Sands Probed in Money Moves
8/4/2012
China Gains Foothold in U.S. Energy
3/6/2012
In the Heart of the Rust Belt, Chinese Funds Provide the Grease
2/11/12
In a single night during the Lunar New Year
last year, Wynn's Las Vegas resort won $16 million in table gambling,
the biggest tables-game night in its history. Asked at an investor
conference about the Chinese business in Las Vegas, Sands' CEO Sheldon Adelson described gambling as a "linchpin" of the Chinese culture. "In my second life, I'm coming back as Chinese," he said.
But while this Asian connection is a potential gold mine, it is
quietly attracting a related and controversial business that has drawn
the attention of federal authorities. China allows residents to take
only $50,000 in currency abroad a year, so some high rollers rely on
foreign tour operators, known as "junkets," to provide access to far
greater sums. Based in the Chinese gambling mecca of Macau, it is an
industry U.S. law enforcement officials and diplomats have long
suspected of money laundering and organized crime.
Now as the big U.S. companies are
upping the ante on their Chinese business, the U.S. Treasury enforcement
arm is focusing on whether some junket operators are importing a new
layer of money laundering to Las Vegas by obscuring the source of their
funding, the method for transferring it to high rollers and the
identities of the gamblers themselves. As part of that focus, the
Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network last month issued a web
alert to casinos advising them to monitor junket operations and junket
patrons and report "all available information" on any suspicious
activity.
The alert isn't the only headache Las
Vegas may face from the world of junkets. According to documents
reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, at least two alleged Chinese
organized crime figures are operating in Las Vegas through Macau-based
junkets; both have been members of Sands' high roller "Chairman's Club."
Law enforcement authorities say they are concerned about casinos
transferring junket deposits across international borders for patron
gambling; without the same scrutiny banks provide, those fund movements
carry a high risk of money laundering, they say.
People close to the junket industry also
provided the Journal with names of four operators who have been
registered to do business in Nevada—but who were found unsuitable last
year by outside investigators for Singapore's gambling authority. Three
of the four are still registered in Nevada, including one who
investigators said had hundreds of millions of dollars in unaccounted
for cash and assets, the people said. Nevada and Singapore gambling
officials declined to comment.
Spokesmen for Sands, MGM and Wynn declined to discuss the specifics
of their junket partnerships, but casino officials say they have been
able to limit junket presence in Las Vegas by working directly with
Chinese patrons. Indeed, while their ranks are growing, the number of
VIP gamblers from the mainland who are making the trip to Las Vegas is
still a relatively small group. The casinos also said their operations
comply with all laws and that their junket partners haven't been charged
with any serious crimes. "We can't be held to account for something
that legal authorities have yet to resolve," said Alan Feldman, a
spokesman for MGM.
Las Vegas' interest in the Chinese
sector is the latest example of U.S. companies noticing—and trying to
capitalize on—increasing flows of assets leaving mainland China. Of
course, that interest by Las Vegas isn't entirely new, dating back to at
least the 1980s, when Caesars Palace famously placed a Buddhist shrine
in front of its casino. Lunar New Year has long been a big event in
town, and some casino hotels avoid rooms with the number "4," considered
unlucky by some Chinese. Still, attracting travelers from mainland
China was rare, since travel was limited and casino companies had few
inroads into the complex gambling scene in Macau, the heart of Chinese
gambling.
Enlarge Image
Associated Press
The Lunar New Year display inside the conservatory at MGM's Bellagio hotel and casino in Las Vegas.
In recent years, though, MGM, Wynn and
Sands have opened casinos in Macau, which has catapulted into the
world's largest gambling center, with a remarkable $34 billion in
gambling revenue last year, more than five times the size of the Vegas
Strip. The success the companies have had there—Wynn relied on Macau for
72% of its revenue last year—has given them a new incentive to create a
home-away-from-home for Chinese mainlanders. Sands alone poured $25
million into upgrading just one "Paiza" gambling center in Las Vegas,
while other casinos have been similarly generous, creating ultra luxury
gambling salons with Chinese TV and Chinese food delicacies.
"Guests can have anything they want anytime," Greg Shulman, a vice
president for marketing for MGM's Bellagio hotel, said on a tour earlier
this year of that casino's salon, decorated with gold and red hues and
private spaces. He called the adjacent dim sum and noodle joint "one of
the most important restaurants in the entire building."
In all, the number of mainland Chinese and Hong Kong tourists to Las
Vegas has shot up almost 80% over five years, to 188,000 last year. But
for casinos, the most important payout has come at its baccarat tables,
the game favored by Chinese high rollers. Revenue from that game rose
49% through July this year, compared with the same time period five
years ago, even as overall gambling revenue on the Strip fell almost
10%. Because of baccarat's growth, the game has jumped to more than one
fifth of all Vegas Strip gambling revenues, up from 13%.
"The baccarat growth is entirely driven by mainland Chinese
travelers," said Ben Lee, a casino consultant who has written
extensively about the junket market. "What you have is a small number of
people making a big impact."
Red Flags
View Interactive
A good part of
that growth, insiders say, wouldn't have been possible without the
junket industry. Entrenched in Macau casinos since the 1980s, junkets
are essential to many Chinese high rollers because China has tight
restrictions on how much currency residents can carry abroad in a year.
The country doesn't recognize gambling debt either.
To assist high-rollers, junkets give players extensive credit lines
to gamble and then collect debts when the losses pile up. Some allow
high rollers to merely sign IOUs before they go abroad—but exactly how
junkets get around Chinese regulations is shrouded in mystery,
regulators say. "I still to this day have not had anyone be able to show
me how the money leaves mainland China and ends up in Macau," said Mark
Lipparelli, the outgoing chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board,
which has sweeping authority over Nevada casinos and their partners. "I
have yet to have anyone explain this to me in a coherent manner."
Analysts estimate there are as many as 10,000 people working in some
capacity for the junket industry, which runs from single-man shops to
formal firms. Many are tied to so-called "super junkets," conglomerates
that operate a wide range of junket activity and in some cases, end up
with quirky assets from years of debt collecting. According to one
former junket employee, Steve Karoul, a Mystic, Conn., casino consultant
who now advises investors on the industry, the parking lot of one
junket he worked for in the 1990s looked like a used car dealership,
because it had seized so many cars from gamblers unable to pay debts.
The company also seized real-estate assets, including a 400-room hotel.
"It's all gray market," he said.
Alexandra Berzon
Baccarat table in the 'Paiza'
gambling lounge for Asian high-rollers on the 50th floor of Sands'
Palazzo hotel and casino in Las Vegas.
One
operator who talked to the Journal said the industry has been trying to
change its reputation, and now has some firms listed on foreign stock
exchanges. "Junkets are becoming more corporate," said Hoffman Ma,
deputy chairman of Success Universe Group Ltd., which has been in the
junket business since the 1990s. He said some Macau junkets still have
links with organized crime in China, but described that activity as
lessening, with junkets trying to make "more loans legitimate" and
realizing that "violence isn't going to work in Macau anymore."
Mr. Lipparelli, at the Nevada gaming board, said that while those
links may occur in Macau, his office has found no evidence of junkets
introducing organized crime to Las Vegas. "There's nothing that would
indicate that," he said. Still, according to two people knowledgeable
about junkets in Asia, private investigators working for the Casino
Regulatory Authority of Singapore reviewed the application of a junket
operator registered in Nevada—and recommended he not be approved because
he failed to disclose ties to a suspected organized crime figure. The
same investigators found another Nevada-approved operator, Chan Ting
Lai, unsuitable because he listed more than $250 million in cash and
assets he couldn't account for, according to the two people.
Reached in Hong Kong, Mr. Chan, owner of a large interior design firm
who has occasionally appeared at local entertainment industry events,
said he was still waiting for news on his application from the
regulatory authority in Singapore.
Enlarge Image
Nevada and Singapore regulators
typically share information, but a spokesman for the Nevada Gaming
Control Board wouldn't comment on whether the agency knew about the
outside investigators' report for Singapore. Agency officials say that
with hundreds of casino partnerships to monitor, it doesn't typically do
extensive reviews on applications for smaller operators. The gaming
board did recently increase registration fees, from $750 to $2,000, to
fund more thorough checks, but critics say it still needs to step up
scrutiny of Macau-based operators. "Macau is a real potential source of
embarrassment and difficulty for the Nevada regulators," said Bill
Eadington, a professor at the University of Nevada Reno who has studied
Macau junkets.
On the federal level, fund transfers between Macau and Las Vegas that
casinos handle for junkets have attracted the attention of the Treasury
Department. Chip Poncy, head of a Treasury Department policy office,
said such transfers are "a vulnerability we've seen for quite some time"
and that authorities are working with casinos and regulators to address
"the specific exploitation of it." Such transfers have long been a
concern for regulators internationally. "You've got these layers of
anonymity building up and building up so the player can hide between
quite a few layers of transactions," said Rachael Horton, a former New
Zealand casino regulator who wrote a 2009 report for the Financial
Action Task Force, an anti-money-laundering group based in Paris.
Casino officials for Sands, MGM and
Wynn say they comply with all federal requirements and have policies
guarding against money laundering; gamblers, they say, aren't allowed to
cash transferred funds in Las Vegas, just the winnings they make from
them. "Our company has a detailed compliance program that is submitted
to regulators," said Ron Reese, a Sands spokesman.
Reuters
Charles Heung was identified as
a high-ranking triad figure in a 1992 U.S. Senate subcommittee report
on Asian organized crime. He has publicly denied being involved in
organized crime.
Details on the movement of funds for
Chinese high rollers into Las Vegas—and some of the more controversial
figures who may be involved—have also emerged since a high-profile,
wrongful-termination suit was filed in 2010 by Steve Jacobs, the former
head of Macau operations for Sands. In the suit, Mr. Jacobs filed copies
of a Sands ledger showing intracompany transactions between Macau and
Las Vegas with junket and individual names blocked out; the Journal has
now seen the names. Two people with past alleged ties to Chinese
organized crime groups known as triads are either listed in the
ledger—or are business partners of junkets on the document.
The two men—Cheung Chi Tai and Charles Heung—have each been
identified as high-ranking triad figures in a 1992 U.S. Senate
subcommittee report on Asian organized crime; the report, which followed
a series of triad-related arrests by the FBI, drew its findings from
law enforcement authorities and informants. More recently, a Hong Kong
appeals court judgment in March 2011 said Mr. Cheung was a "triad
leader" who ordered the death of a casino dealer. He wasn't charged in
the case, but a subordinate was sentenced for conspiracy to commit
murder.
Enlarge Image
Las Vegas Sands Corp.
'Paiza' dining room.
Neither
Mr. Cheung nor Mr. Heung has been convicted of triad activity, and Mr.
Heung has publicly denied being involved in organized crime; when
contacted, representatives of the two men declined to comment. According
to people with knowledge of the company, both have also been members of
Sands' "Chairman's Club." The club is a select group of high-rollers
given exclusive access to Sands' most luxurious suites, six-figure
monthly expense accounts and extensive credit lines, according to a
court filing by Mr. Jacobs, who, through his attorney, has declined to
discuss his case.
For their part, Treasury and other law enforcement authorities who
have seen or are familiar with the Sands ledger say they are alarmed by
the size of some of the activity. Although the reasons for the fund
movements aren't known, the Journal found more than two dozen junket
operators on the ledger transferring a total of about $28 million from
2006 to 2010. One junket operator alone transferred $3.6 million in two
days between Macau and Las Vegas in 2009; another transferred $2.4
million in one day, according to the ledger.
Asked about the ledger, which was an
accounting document at Sands, Ron Reese, a company spokesman, wouldn't
comment on the money transfers, the company's use of junkets or any
people identified as moving money through casinos. "We believe the
company has acted properly and we will continue to cooperate with all
our regulators," he said. "But we will not compromise the privacy rights
of our customers."
In the end, some followers of the junket arrival in Las Vegas say the
biggest mystery may be the size of this new industry. In Macau, junkets
accounted for nearly three-fourths of the island's gambling revenues
last year, according to local regulators. Here in Las Vegas, casino
executives say the junket industry is much smaller, accounting for no
more than 20% of their mainland China VIP business. But some consultants
say that number is higher.
One problem: it is hard to track junket revenues because some junkets
don't use formal contracts—part of what Mr. Lee, the expert in the
Chinese gambling market, calls the "shadow junket" industry.
"Getting money over to America is even harder than getting money to
Macau," he said. "That's why the junkets have a big role in Vegas."
—Daniel Lippman, Chester Yung and Chun Han Wong contributed to this article.
Write to Alexandra Berzon at [url=mailto:[email protected]][email protected][/url], Kate O'Keeffe at [url=mailto:[email protected]][email protected][/url] and James Grimaldi at [url=mailto:[email protected]][email protected][/url]
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