Hong Kong Jockey Club chief aims to make the city's favourite pastime an entertaining exercise, faced with a dip in racing turnover in the past season, the challenge of keeping its community commitments and competition.

Ask many punters who frequent the Hong Kong Jockey Club their opinion of Chief Executive Winfried  Engelbrecht-Bresges and the answer is likely to be favourable. Good to firm, a race-goer might say.
   
Since joining the club as director of racing, the German national has implemented multiple changes. There are improved facilities including better enclosures and bigger display screens. During his tenure, Hong Kong horses have competed well at international level and he has also fought and won tax rebates on bets over HK$10,000 allowing the club some leverage against illegal betting.
  
This year, the club also persuaded the government to allow five extra racedays and 15 additional simulcast races scheduled to highlight world class events with a Hong Kong interest, such as our jockeys racing.

TEXT: ELLE KWAN     PHOTOS: JIMMY LUK

Gambling magnate Steve Wynn is offering Chinese investors the chance to become shareholders of his company by floating Wynn Macau in a share market that is itself a casino for punters who wade in to gamble on a stream of initial public offerings 

Declaring that taking his gambling operation in Macau to the Hong Kong market will allow it to "basically become more of a Chinese company," Stephen Wynn, chairman and chief executive of Wynn Macau, pitched the initial public offering of his company recently at a well- choreographed appearance that also was a reflection of the exceptional experience that Wynn properties represent to gamblers and visitors. "My business is about customer experience," he said, adding that "the buildings have an awful lot to do with it."
   
With a new issue of 1.25 billion shares, Wynn Macau is aiming to raise US$1.63 billion (HK$12.63 billion) at a price of between HK$8.52 and HK$10.08 per share. Wynn, a 40-year veteran in the casino and resorts businesses, noted that the float "gives a chance to do something that’s very important to us and that is to share the ownership of this concession with the Chinese public, participants and financial institutions..."
  
The IPO comes at a time of some positive developments. The markets may be treading water and retail investors wary, but on the day of Steve Wynn’s announcement, Sinopharm Group (1099), the mainland’s leading pharmaceutical company made a successful trading debut on the main board, rising 15.8 per cent to close at HK$18.52, although the Hang Seng Index settled lower. Sinopharm raised US$1.13 billion in its IPO, pricing its shares at HK$16 per share.

TEXT: KAPILA BANDARA     PHOTOS: JIMMY LUK

Jebsen has recorded triple digit rates of growth for its sportscars sold in the mainland. The head of the group tells The PEAK that last year it sold 8,000 cars compared with 40 nine years ago.

Porsche’s decision to unveil its latest model, the four-seater Panamera saloon, at the Shanghai Motor Show last April did more than underscore the exhibition's emergence as one of the world's top automotive events. It also highlighted just how seriously China's auto market is being taken by purveyors of the world's most luxurious brands. In a short period of time, China seems to have moved from radicalism to radical chic.
    
"In 2001, we applied for and got the distribution rights into China for Porsche, and in our first year we sold 40 cars," says Helmuth Hennig, group managing director of Jebsen. "Last year, we sold just over 8,000 vehicles in China, up 200 times. Porsche produced 100,000 vehicles last year, which means that 8 per cent of production went to China, making it the third largest market after the United States and Germany."
   
Just 10 years ago, who would have thought that China  which then had more bicycles on the roads than cars would experience such rapid growth in private car ownership in such a short time frame?


TEXT: MICHAEL TAYLOR     PHOTOS: JIMMY LUK