HK billionaire on the hunt for bargains

Now is the time to get back into stocks: Lee Shau Kee

(HONG KONG) Billionaire investor Lee Shau Kee, sometimes nicknamed Hong Kong’s Warren Buffett, said that he spent more than HK$1 billion (S$185 million) in the stock market on Thursday as the first salvo in a HK$10 billion bargain hunt.
‘Now is the right time to get back to the stock market and start buying,’ Mr Lee told a news conference.

The HK$10 billion that Mr Lee is poised to pump into stocks will most likely target his favoured portfolio of 11 companies.
The initial HK$1 billion went into China Life Insurance Co, China Merchants Bank, oil firm CNOOC Ltd, coal producer Shenhua Energy and stockmarket operator Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd.

But Mr Lee warned investors that although he was being open about his plans, he was not expecting anyone to follow him and he was not promising speculators would profit by doing so.
‘Gamblers like to complain if they lose their money,’ he said, according to Bonnie Ngan, spokeswoman for his firm Henderson Land.

Mr Lee said Hong Kong’s stock market had fully priced in negative news, such as the fallout from the US subprime crisis, and it was time for investors to hunt for bargains.
He forecast that the benchmark Hang Seng Index, which closed 2.3 per cent down at 26,004.92 on Thursday, would hit 30,000 later this year before climbing to reach 33,000 by Chinese new year, during the first quarter of 2008.

The index hit a high of 31,958.41 at the end of last month, but has fallen steadily since.