GRANSING SECURITIES CO., LIMITED 瑞城證券有限公司

The convictions are quashed.

Mark Mak Kwong Yiu (7 months) and Christie Chan Lai Yee (5 months, suspended for 18 months) thereby enter the Webb-site Hall of Shame. They and their 2 co-defendants are the first persons connected to the "Enigma Network" exposed by Webb-site in 2017 to be sentenced. Comment: the sentences seem remarkably light by comparison with recent sentences for peaceful but unauthorised assemblies.

At last, some convictions in the "Enigma Network" that we exposed in 2017. It's a start.

Allegedly, over a 3.5 year period, Convoy Investment Services (CIS), in which Mark Mak Kwong Yiu and 2 other EDs of Convoy held substantial shareholdings, acted as a hidden connected placing agent for bond issues, using Gransing Securities as a front. We note that in 2015, CIS applied for a listing on GEM which lapsed. It was then a partial subsidiary of a BVI company which was 35.06% owned by Quincy Wong Lee Man, 29.62% by Mr Mak and 20.71% by Shin Kin Man, Wong and Shin, both EDs of Convoy, are not charged today.

Gransing is one of the brokerages in what we call the "Enigma Network", having acted as placing agent for many of its listed companies. The firm was co-founded by Ms Oei and her husband Gerald Que Bon Tan. It is 17.52% owned by China New Economy Fund (0080), a network company. The CNEF accounts state that Gransing Financial Group Ltd (including the brokerage) had an unaudited loss of HK$20.7m in 2018. Ms Oei admitted that she dishonestly crossed orders with an unnamed friend at another firm in 2 stocks (not in the network).

How much damage can a HK main board company do to its share price within the first year of listing? Try 79.6%, with two full-sized placings under the generous general mandate, one of them at a discount to net cash per share, neither of which was necessary. For Time2U (1327) one year was time enough.

Actually it is buying a BVI company, Bonus First Group, which owns Unit 503, 5/F Wing On House, for HK$62m in cash, conditional on a placing of new shares via Gransing Securities to pay for it. BFG agreed to buy the property for $53.9m on 8-Aug-2015, but it must have paid HK$4.58m in Double Stamp Duty at 8.5%. This completed on 30-Sep-2015, 6 days before the sale of BFG. There will be no stamp duty on the transfer of the BVI company.

Pour yourself a coffee and digest this long article as we investigate several ongoing abusive "open offers" and placings as well as show you who's been making out in multi-billion-dollar bubbles. We call on regulators and rule-makers to take action.

He is a Responsible Officer of Adamas Asset Management (HK) Ltd. The primary underwriter is Gransing Securities Co Ltd.

The primary underwriter is Gransing Securities Co Ltd.