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ϓɓաՑయࠠٙʮ̡f
Company still in a comfortable financial position. This means we can
take on further projects whether they are on the Mainland or in Hong
Kong as market conditions allow. As always, we will be patient and wait
for an auspicious time to purchase. Nevertheless we should not try too
hard to time the entry point, for no one is so smart as to know when
the market will bottom.
About a decade ago I made a conscientious decision to articulate
through this letter to shareholders our strategies and the thinking that
led to them. The worry then was that others would imitate us, thus
negating any competitive edge that we might have built. The advantage
for writing however was that only by doing so would our share price
have a chance of being properly reflected. At that time, our counter had
had perhaps three decades of underperformance. Even all the correct
decisions made in the 1990s went unnoticed.
Eventually what convinced us to open up was our assessment that
even if we let the world know our strategy, it would not be easy for our
competitors in the near future to gain the expertise needed. By the time
they do – and if they do – we would have amassed one of the best land
banks in economically vibrant cities that would assure us continued
success. Once we have secured the best located plots, we will have
acquired a commanding competitive advantage. After all, given financial
constraints we can only play in a limited number of municipalities,
and opportunities on the Mainland far exceed the resources of any
company. There is plenty of room for many developers, and we should
not run into each other too much.
Those decisions of ours led me to write some of the longest chairman’s
letters I have known, the record being in 2009/2010 with over 11,000
words. Each year, I covered one or more critical aspects of the Company
that were not only pertinent at the time but would also affect our long
term health. For management, it was a useful exercise because putting
thoughts on paper forced us to think through market conditions and our
strategic response. Of course we recognize that quality of information
cannot be measured only by the length of writing. Nevertheless, we are
gratified that many shareholders have expressed their appreciation for
the clarity of thoughts, and our share price has had an almost ten-year
run of out-performance compared to our peers. We turned from being
ignored to a counter which is – allow me to say – respected.
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