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stability.
In addition, Deng spoke about his views on
Eastern Europe and China's wish not to intervene in Soviet affairs by commenting on developments there.
3. In the last four years, Sir Y K Pao has handed over the
day-to-day running of his business interests to his four
sons-in-law, including Dr Helmut Sohmen, an Austrian lawyer,
who runs his shipping empire. Sir Y K Pao has one of the
world's biggest privately owned shipping fleets. Most of his vessels are tankers, registered in Liberia and Panama.
4.
Although shipping is his main area of expertise,
Sir Y K Pao also has a wide range of other business
interests, including finance and insurance, hotels and
property. But some of his efforts to branch into new areas
outside shipping has been relatively unsuccessful. In November 1989 he sold his 37.8% stake in Dragonair, the
smaller of Hong Kong's two carriers, having underestimated
the political problems of acquiring international air traffic rights. Dragonair, in which Cathay Pacific is a
major shareholder, is now the designated UK air carrier
serving the PRC from Hong Kong. Sir Y K Pao was one of Standard Chartered's "White Knights" in 1986, buying a 14.9%
stake in the Bank to help prevent a takeover by Lloyds.
he sold out at a substantial loss in 1988.
But
5.
Although Sir Y K Pao is unlikely to discuss his business
interests in any detail, he might touch on the question of the second cable network in Hong Kong. In August 1989, Hong Kong Cable Communications (HKCC) (in which Sir Y K Pao's
Wharf Group has a 28% stake) won a 15 year franchise to
provide cable television. HKCC are now squabbling with Li
Ka-Shing's Hutchison Group (which withdrew its rival bid for
the cable franchise after the events of last June) over the
latter's plans to use their stake in the new Asiasat
communications satellite to transmit satellite television in
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