More than 10,000 people, including financial sector workers and common investors, are expected to stage a march on New Year's Day to protest against the aborted listing of the Link Real Estate Investment Trust (the Link), which was scheduled on Monday.

The march is organized by the 1,000-member Hong Kong Securities and Futures Industry Staff Union.

Addressing a press conference Wednesday, the union's chairman, David Wong, said they are protesting against some politicians who politicized the listing for their personal gains. Not only did the cancellation of the listing hurt Hong Kong's image as an international financial centre, it also caused financial loss to the investors and loss of business to the industry, Wong said.

Wong urged the parties involved in the legal challenge to the listing to "have more conscience", and said he feared such incidents will happen again if politicians do not stop their vicious bickering.

Meanwhile, a group of 50 brokers and brokerages Wednesday carried full-page advertisements in several Chinese-language newspapers for a second day.

The advertisement condemned legislator Albert "Taipan" Cheng and his comrades for ignoring the interest of the Hong Kong people by inciting public housing tenants to wage litigation against the listing.

The abortion of the listing has made Hong Kong a laughing stock in financial circles, the advertisement said.

Also Wednesday, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Frederick Ma said he shared the disappointment of the 510,000 investors after the listing was shelved.

"I also feel very disappointed because if the Link was floated in the stock market, the Housing Authority (HA) could return its wealth to the people.

"The market is disappointed and so are the workers, who lost a chance to do business," he said.

But the government's decision to relaunch the Link after all legal uncertainties are resolved will eventually benefit investors and avoid confusion, Ma added.

Hong Kong Association of Banks Chairman Peter Sullivan said the abortion of the listing was a pity but it was an isolated case.

He believed this would not affect privatization of government assets in future. If the Link is listed again, banks will be interested in the plan, Sullivan said.

In a related development, Lo Siu-lang, the public housing tenant who has forced the cancellation of the Link listing by refusing to give a straight answer on whether she will appeal with the Court of Final Appeal (CFA), met her lawyers for about two hours in the company of legislator Leung Kwok-hung.

She said after the meeting that she was very eager to lodge a final appeal and is discussing the matter with the lawyers. But she did not disclose what has transpired in the meeting.

Lo and another public housing tenant, Ma Ki-chiu, initiated the legal challenge of the Link listing by applying for judicial review to forbid the HA from selling its 180 shopping malls and nearly 79,000 car parking spaces. Both the Court of First Instance and the Court of Appeal rejected the application last week.

But there is a 28-day period to appeal against that ruling at the CFA. The period started last Friday.

If Lo does not make the appeal to the supreme court, the HA can relaunch the Link on February 25 at the earliest.

(China Daily HK Edition December 23, 2004)