CY Leung faces more questions about secret HK$50m deal after rival bid is revealed

On the same day that Hong Kong chief executive Leung Chun-ying signed an undisclosed agreement worth £4 million (HK$50 million) as part of his former company’s sale to listed Australian engineering firm UGL, a second offer arrived to buy the company that exceeded UGL’s bid by £90 million.

The existence of the second bid is likely to raise further questions about Leung’s conduct in 2011 during his final days as a DTZ board member, and in particular, whether he was able to provide impartial advice on the merits of the second offer given that he stood to gain HK$50 million if the sale to UGL went through.

Something’s Gotta Give: A Banker Weighs In on Hong Kong’s Leader

As Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying denies he did anything wrong in receiving a $6.4 million payment as part of a noncompete agreement just before he took office, a banker’s comment that Mr. Leung will face calls to step down has drawn attention.

David Eldon–the former chairman of HSBC Holdings HSBA.LN 0.00% PLC’s Asia operation who is now nonexecutive chairman of HSBC’s Middle East unit—said on his blog: “Whatever the truth in this particular matter is, I am pretty sure that it will be blown up to the extent that, legal or not, C.Y. Leung will face calls to step down.”

Mr. Eldon said in his blogpost on Thursday titled “Hong Kong: The Light, the Dark and the Long Term” that such pressure could come from Hong Kong itself as well as from Beijing. 

In a Reversal, Hong Kong Scraps Talks With Protesters

HONG KONG — The standoff between Hong Kong’s government and pro-democracy protesters intensified Thursday as the democrats demanded that the city’s top official be impeached over a multimillion-dollar payment from an Australian company and the government pulled out of talks with the protesters.

The talks, which were to have begun Friday, were the only active avenue for resolving a dispute that has led to sit-in demonstrations that have closed roads and disrupted life for nearly two weeks in Asia’s most important financial center.

The cancellation of the talks came after an afternoon news conference by the protest groups and their political allies in which they pledged to continue the protests and start a new phase of civil disobedience to maintain pressure on the government.

Hong Kong chief executive ‘was paid £4m by Australian company

Hong Kong’s chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, secretly received millions of pounds in payments from an Australian company after he took office, according to media reports.

The engineering company UGL agreed to pay Leung £4m in relation to its acquisition of DTZ Holdings, an insolvent property services firm that had employed Leung as its Asia Pacific director before he took office, Melbourne-based The Age reported on Wednesday.