2006: A Year of Exciting Events Tricorian The Tricor Newsletter December 2006 Contents Message from the Managing Directors 1 A Year of Tremendous Activity 3 Acquisitions and Further Growth 5 Advancing Professional Frontiers 7 Tricor Seminar 10 Business Development 12 Staff Development 15 Staff Events 19 Tricor in the Community 24 Tricor Contacts 26 Message from the Managing Directors Dear Colleagues, Valued Clients and The offi cial opening of Tricor Thailand’s new Business Partners, offi ce took place in Bangkok in September. Our Thailand CEO, Khun Munthana, offi ciated at the Welcome to the December 2006 issue of Buddhist opening ceremony and Group the Tricorian! Chairman Dr David Li and CEO Johnny Ng joined the celebrations. Tricor in Three Pacifi c Place Year 2006 is an exciting year for Tricor and To facilitate intra-group and client Tricorians. We started off, in January, with the communications, our Information Technology moving of our two offi ces from Central and Department in Hong Kong has been assisting our Wan Chai to our new Headquarters at Three Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok offi ces in setting up Pacifi c Place, 1 Queen’s Road East. At present, new IT infrastructures and email systems. These our fl agship in Hong Kong spans more than are now in place and in line with the Hong Kong 70,000 sq ft in area and we are happily settled. offi ce systems. Welcome, Executive Directors Group business continues to grow apace. In We are pleased to welcome fi ve Executive the Hong Kong investors market, our Investor Directors to the management team. They are Services Division provided services for 26 Initial Shirley Tsang and H C Ying of Business Services, Public Offerings (IPOs) in 2006, riding on bullish Natalia Seng and Betty Yeung of Corporate market sentiment. On the Corporate Secretarial Services, and Allan Tong of Investor Services. front, with the increasing number of listings on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, increasingly also Acquisitions and Growth our directors have been appointed as company There have been continuing acquisitions and secretary / joint company secretary of listed growth for the Tricor Group. We completed the issuers. acquisition of Malaysia businesses in January, which added two more cities to our As of December 2006, the Tricor Group operates map. Following the acquisition of the Ernst & in 10 cities, with plans to increase our cities of Young business services practice in Mainland operation to 12 or more in 2007. Group China in October 2005, we opened another headcount is now some 1,000, with 625 making offi ce in Shenzhen. In January 2007 our Beijing up the Hong Kong offi ce. We wish to extend offi ce will be relocated to accommodate the our warmest welcome to all newcomers to the needs of an expanding clientele and staff. continually growing Tricor family! 1 TRICORIAN Dec 2006 Tricor Seminars Alison Lai, subject prizewinner of “Strategic and Tricor’s second Regional Executive Seminar on Operations Management”, and Sharon Lai, “Career in a Healthy Lifestyle” was held in Hong subject prizewinner of “Corporate Kong in February. The choice of theme refl ects Administration” in the June 2006 examinations Tricor management’s ‘People Care’ focus. of The Hong Kong Institute of Chartered Secretaries (HKICS). Well done, everyone! In November, we held our annual client seminar on “Corporate Governance and Listing Rules Advancing Professional Frontiers Updates” in Hong Kong. Response to our Topping the excitement of 2006, Natalia Seng invitations to the seminar was overwhelming. and Allan Tong have been elected respectively Feedback was most positive. as HKICS President and Chairman of the Federation of Share Registrars Limited. Our People Congratulations, Natalia and Allan! Our people are the most valuable asset of our organization. As an Employer of Choice, we Tricor in the Community strongly believe in promoting the continuing We are proud, also, to bring you news of various professional development and general well involvements of Tricor staff in the community. being of all our staff. In 2006, we continued to offer targeted staff development activities Thank You as well as exciting events for staff and families The arrival of 2007 will bring further challenges through our Sports and Recreation Committee. to our Group. With your continuing support, the Tricor team spirit will keep us in good stead and Our staff, too, have taken their professional take us to further heights of achievement. development into their own hands. We wish to congratulate those of our staff that have On behalf of the Management, we wish to become certifi ed public accountants and thank every single Tricorian for your hard work, chartered secretaries, and completed all contribution and devotion to the Group in 2006. professional examinations or second degrees in the year. In particular, our good wishes go to In closing, we wish you and your families a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year. Johnny Ng & Julian Chow Managing Directors December 2006 2 TRICORIAN Dec 2006 A Year of Tremendous Activity Tricor has seen a year of tremendous activity, in a new high. Local and overseas investors alike particular, in our Investor Services and Corporate joined in the oversubscription one after the Services Divisions. other. In December alone, Tricor completed 7 IPO assignments with great success, including popular issues such as the spin off of Kingboard Investor Services Chemical, Neo Neon, Embry, The Sunlight REIT and SCUD. Tricor’s Investor Services Division (IS) has seen a year of exceptional activity – riding on an The extent of oversubscription to major IPOs extraordinary surge of Initial Public gave a hint of the behind the scenes support Offerings (IPOs) on the Hong Kong Stock that we provided to our client issuers. Our Exchange (HKSE). The Hong Kong stock market in-house team, supported by some 300 continues to be bullish, with indexes rising to checkers on call as and when required, dealt record highs. with all matters with scrupulous attention and unfailing professionalism. In the fi rst half of the year we took up as many as 12 important IPO assignments, out of a total Over the year our IS team achieved a of 26 IPOs on HKSE (46% of total). All projects remarkable record in terms of capital attracted enthusiastic responses from generated, subscriptions received, applications subscribers, in tune with market sentiment. processed and revenue received. Among these, the following were Congratulations to our hardworking overwhelmingly subscribed: IS colleagues on their excellent performance! • Nine Dragons Paper (Holdings) Limited - oversubscribed by 578 times with 245,315 applications • China National Building Material Company Limited - oversubscribed by 536 times with 219,736 applications • Tianjin Port Development Holdings Limited - over subscribed by 1,703 times with 379,945 applications. In the last two months of the year, with over 15 IPOs for listing on HKSE, market frenzy rose to Tricor IS team in action during an IPO project 3 TRICORIAN Dec 2006 Corporate Services company secretaries and our clients require assistance and support in enhancing governance Our Corporate Services (CS) business continues standards within their organizations. Our to expand, especially with the further opening CS directors and professionals also conduct up of the fi nancial services sector in Mainland Induction Programmes for directors and senior China as part of the agreement relating to management of listed issuers to meet HKSE China’s entry into the World Trade requirements. Organization. Increasingly our directors have been appointed With rebounding economies in the Asia Pacifi c as company secretary / joint company secretary Region, the increasing emphasis on effective of listed issuers. The latest appointments were: corporate governance in the statutory and regulatory regime, and the unprecedented • Natalia Seng as joint company secretary of number of listings of H-share companies on China Merchants Bank Co., Ltd. together HKSE, demand for professional corporate with the bank’s in-house secretary services continues to rise. • Susan Lo and Caron Lee as joint company secretaries of SPG Land (Holdings) Limited All these developments have further • Patsy Cheng as company secretary of highlighted the important role of the chartered HannStar Board International Holdings secretary in corporate management. Limited • Cynthia Wong as company secretary of China Our CS division provides company secretarial Paradise Electronics Retail Limited support services to almost a hundred listed issuers. The market is short of experienced Left to right: Meet some of Tricor’s CS directors: Natalia Seng, Paul Moyes, Betty Yeung, Diana Chung, Susan Lo, Patsy Cheng, Cynthia Wong and Veronica Lin 4 TRICORIAN Dec 2006 Acquisitions and Further Growth Tricor continues to expand rapidly through founders were formerly directors in secretarial acquisitions and further growth. and business services with the Malaysian Coopers & Lybrand organization (C&L), and part of TCC’s Acquisition of Mainland China share registration practice was acquired from C&L, Business Services currently known as PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Our new practice is now named Tricor Services In October 2005, Tricor successfully acquired the (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd. Yeap Kok Leong, formerly business services practice of Ernst & Young (EY) Managing Director of TCC, joined the Tricor Malaysia in Mainland China. A group of 10 staff from EY practice as Chief Executive and Managing Director. have joined our Beijing and Shanghai offi ces. Chuah Poo Sian, formerly Executive Director, joined The acquisition has brought in a new portfolio as Tricor’s Executive Director. of clients and assignments, strengthening the positioning of Tricor Consultancy (Beijing) Acquisition of the Malaysia businesses has brought Limited as one of the market leaders in the over 60 staff and two additional cities of operation provision of accounting, payment processing to the Tricor family. and payroll outsourcing services in the Mainland. The acquired business units continue to operate at their existing premises at Plaza Permata in Kuala Our China Services Director, John Poon, together Lumpur and the Persiaran Midlands in Penang.