Legend Selected for Hang SengLegend Holding, China's top domestic PC vendor, is set to become one of the 33 Hang Seng Index (HSI) composite companies Wednesday.The Hong Kong-listed firm will rank 11th among the 33 HSI composite companies based on its market value and weighting, according to statistics released by the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (SEHK). After its flotation on the stock exchange in February 1994, when it had a total market value of HK$1.02 billion (US$131.1 million), Legend reported rapid growth thanks to the soaring domestic PC market. Its market value has grown by more than HK$66.81 billion (US$8.59 billion) since then. "We are very happy to be a member of the HSI composite companies and we will continue to work hard to further increase our profits," said Liu Chuanzhi, chairman of Legend Holding. The 33 HSI composite companies are selected according to the following three rules: First, the respective market capitalization and turnover rankings: the company should be both large and liquid; Second, the need to ensure that the representation of the sector sub-sections within the HSI directly reflects that of the market; Third, the financial performance of the company must be both stable and sustainable. The 33 HSI composite companies occupy 70 per cent of the total market value of all those companies listed on the SEHK. As such, the HSI is made up of Hong Kong's elite companies like China Mobile (HK) Ltd, HSBC Holdings and Hutchinson Whampoa. Legend Holding, together with PCCW/HKT and Li & Fung, will replace Great Eagle and Shangri-La Asia on the HSI Wednesday. (PCCW/HKT will replace HKT after the latter has been acquired by PCCW earlier.) "Legend is a very well managed domestic company, its management is first class," said Hsueh Sung, vice-chairman of Goldman Sachs (Asia) Co Ltd. Legend is busy expanding its interests from the production of hardware to become an Internet-oriented service provider. It launched its own portal, FM365.com.cn, earlier this year and successfully applied for an ISP (Internet service provider) licence so that it can now act as an ASP (application service provider). Liu said Legend had not yet made any profit on its Internet business, "but with all the work we've been doing to expand in this area we expect that our Internet business will break even by 2002." Legend recently released its performance figures for the first quarter of this year and the company has reportedly made a profit of HK$191 million (US$24.55 million), which is 136 per cent more than the same period last year. |
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