Honk Kong: Prime property leased for $13 a year

HONG KONG: Hong Kong telecoms giant PCCW has been renting prime publicly-owned real estate to house a staff recreation club for just $13 a year, a report said on Saturday, amid rising public anger over soaring property prices. The South China Morning Post said the firm- whose billionaire chairman Richard Li is the son of the city’s richest man, Li Ka-shing- has paid HK$100 ($13) annually over the last three decades for the site in Hong Kong’s busy Causeway Bay shopping district. The club, open only to PCCW staff, has a mini-soccer pitch, a gym, restaurant, lounge and a barbecue site, the report said. A PCCW spokesman could not be immediately reached on Saturday.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 15^th, 2011.