The company that everyone is still talking about is Richard Li's Hong Kong's Pacific Century Cyber Works. "PCCW has actually helped the economy of Hong Kong. A lot of people made a lot of money and that went back into the system and kick-started the Asian recovery," says Darius Yen, director of equity capital markets at BNP Prime Peregrine Securities.
| Li's PCCW is helping the Asian recovery | ||||||
Certainly PCCW got the year off to a good start with a $1 billion IPO lead-managed by BNP Paribas that gave it ammunition to buy Hong Kong Telecom. "PCCW is everyone's largest corporate client in Hong Kong. It is extremely active and very aggressive in acquiring. It was just amazing to watch what happened and I definitely think they will do more in the fourth quarter," says Kirsty MacTaggart, syndicate manager in the equity capital markets division of Salomon Smith Barney.