HKK
Italian group
group joins British for tube bid
BY.MALCOLM SURRY, Financial
Editor
The Italian Intermetro group has joined forces with the massive British consortium, represented here by Hutchison International, in a blockbuster bid to clinch the contract for Hongkong's $10,000 million plus mass transit system.
Government and commercial interests refused to comment on the matter yesterday, but top level sources confirmed that the alliance is on subject to a couple of signatures.
The news puts the pressure firmly on the Japanese consortium of 51 companies, assembled by Mitsubishi and being looked after here by Jardine's, which has been consistently
To:
tipped as an odds-on favourite' for the prestigious contract.
The British grouping takes in the giant GEC electrical empire, Hutchison's and the merchant bankers, Lazard Brothers, who will supply the financial muscle.
Intermetro comes under the Italian State- owned "umbrella" called IRI that includes companies like Fiat, Instituto Mobialere Italiano, noted engineers Breda Ferroviaria, and La Centrale Finanziaiaria Generale which is one of the biggest public works contractors in Europe.
What the Italian proposals lacked in natural nationalistic and geographical links with Hongkong, they more than compensate for with proven experience in tunnelling including an enormous project still going on to extend
With the compliments of
THE SENIOR BRITISH TRADE
COMMISSIONER
HONG KONG
DN Royce, British Overseas Trade Board Miss Lackey, CR12, DPI, London
Hr Fell, ECG, DTI, London
lar Finlayson, PD, FCO, London.
Kr Stuart, HKIOD, FCO
27 November 1973
Rome's hard-pressed underground system.
Sources close to the Japanese group said last night that the Anglo-Italian get-together was "odd," and they indicated that the joining of hands was a desperation measure from the U.K. end to snatch a prize which was slipping from their financial grasp.
However, it is more likely that Intermetro approached the British with the idea, having abandoned the “lone wolf" policy adopted up
to now,
The Chairman of Hutchison International, Sir Douglas Clague, said many months ago that the company would not be averse to some sort of package partnership along the lines of what now seems to have been produced.
Certainly the alliance is no odder than the Anglo-French-German consortium, fronted
for here by Zung Fu, that the experts are now quoting as a live outsider in what is looking like a two-horse race.
The Government's final decision on who gets what is not likely to be made until well into the New Year.
A series of delays have been caused by the Government's insistence on a rigid set of specifications for the tube within a money framework that allows only a certain escalation clause to cover frightening inflation world-wide.
Intermetro scored some telling points early this year in secret negotiations between their top man, Mr M. Piccagli, and the Financial Secretary, Mr Philip Haddon-Cave.
The men in Rome are hoping that their merger with the British will tip the scales.
7TH FLOOR
SHELL HOUSE
SOUTH CHINA LORNING POST 27 NOV 1973