Fiji's Daily Post/Agencies: 13 January 1999
MEDIA: FIJI SUN QUEEN FIGHTS BANKRUPTCY
The Chinese multimillionaire who once owned the Fiji Sun - closed after the 1987 military coups - and Desai Bookshops is now reportedly fighting bankruptcy proceedings and allegations against her executives of phony circulation figures.
A CHINESE multimillionaire, who once owned the Fiji Sun newspaper and Desai Bookshops, is now facing bankruptcy, according to a report from Hongkong.
The woman, Sally Aw Sian, withdrew after the Fiji military coups in 1987 and the newspaper company, Newspapers of Fiji Ltd [partly owned by New Zealander Philip Harkness], closed.
Her executives are already embroiled in a fraud case involving allegations of phony circulation figures.
But Ms Aw, chairwoman of Sing Tao Holdings Ltd, said the action was invalid because it was not issued properly under Hongkong bankruptcy law, Seaman Kwok, the company's secretary said.
However, if the case proceeds in court it will pit members of two prominent Hongkong families against one another, and the stakes will be high.
If Ms Aw cannot prove she is able to repay her debts, the court would take over her assets, and she would be declared bankrupt.
The bankruptcy petition was filed by Yosham Ltd, a company under the directorship of Charles Ho, grandson of Hongkong tobacco chief Ho Ying-chie.
The South China Morning Post reported that Yosham is claiming at least $74.75 million from Ms Aw.
Ms Aw notified the company's board that the bankruptcy petition was issued on January 7, and that most of her shares in Sing Tao have been handed over to banks as security for loans.
Ms Aw holds 40.04 percent of Sing Tao, which publishes two Hongkong daily newspapers, the English-language Hongkong Standard and Chinese-language Sing Tao Daily News. The papers are struggling financially because advertisers have been spending less amid the territory's recession.
She inherited the media empire from her father, Aw Boon Haw, creator of the Tiger Balm cure-all ointment. Her riches grew at first until she ran into trouble in the early 1990s by expanding into overseas real estate deals that eventually soured.
When Hongkong's property market plunged last year, the real estate ads that are a mainstay of the Sing Tao Daily also started drying up.
Ms Aw recently raised some $25.37 million by selling a Hongkong landmark, the Tiger Balm Garden, a privately owned park featuring statues of Chinese deities and located on some prime real estate just to the east of Hongkong's main business district.
Meantime, a district court is hearing the case of three Hongkong Standard executives, who have been charged with plotting to deceive advertisers by inflating circulation figures.
They say they are innocent.
But the high-profile fraud case has set off a public outcry in Hongkong that its judicial system favours the rich and well-connected.
Ms Aw, a friend of Hongkong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa and a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a political advisory body of the Chinese Government, was identified in court documents as [an alleged] conspirator but was not charged.
Justice officials have declined to give a full explanation of why Ms Aw was not prosecuted but they have disputed suggestions that political connections helped get her off the hook.
Ms Aw said the bankruptcy petition would not stop her planned sale of 23 percent of Sing Tao to a Dublin-listed investment fund, the China Enterprises Development Fund, Mr Kwok said.