Retirement of CEO
Huabao announced on 26 December that Mr. Lau Chi Tak, Executive Director and CEO, as part of his retirement plan , has decided to step down with effect from 8 April 2013. As an interim measure, Ms. Chu Lam Yiu, Chairman of the board, will take up the position of CEO from 9 April 2013.
Mr. Lau, aged 56, has served the company since 9 April 2008. To continue to contribute to the company, Mr. Lau has accepted the appointment as a senior consultant to the company with effect from 9 April 2013.
Mr. Lau has confirmed that he has no disagreement with the board and there is no other matter that needs to be brought to the attention of the company’s shareholders in relation to his retirement.
Change of authorized representative and process agent
Mr. Poon Chiu Kwok, Executive Director and company secretary, and Mr. Xiong Qing, Executive Director and VP, will be appointed as the agent of the company for the purpose of accepting service of process in HKSAR and authorized representative, respectively , with effect from 1 January 2013.
Deutsche Bank comment
Mr. Lau was mainly involved in food flavours and fine fragrances at Huabao. In the past two years, he focused more on the development of RTL(reconstituted tobacco leaves). Ms. Chu will overlook th ese operations in future. We believe that the departure will not have any impa ct on the operation. Near-term focus will be on Ms. Chu’s derivative contract of 94m shares, which will expire on 13 January 2013. As mentioned during the 1HFY13 analyst meeting, Ms. Chu is seeking ways to ease the selling pressure.
The author of this report wishes to acknowledge the contribution made by Richard Huang, an employee of Accenture, a third-party provider to Deutsche Bank of offshore research support services.