Lord, we didna ken
EVEN as they spoke, Hong Kong's bankers were wondering what they might be able to salvage from the wreck of Gitic, the Guang- dong International Trust & Investment Corporation, which had gone down with debts of US$4 billion, with hundreds of other Chinese enterprises wallowing behind it. These red chips — and Gitic was a blue- chip red chip — used to be Mammon's favourites. Now they just look badly bat- tered. Gitic's number one creditor is Japanese, with Dresdner Bank in second place. The German banks should be of interest to students of fight-or-flight psy- chology. Not long ago Deutsche was throw- ing money at China and had hired an old Hong Kong hand, Simon Murray, to throw it. Now it is throwing money at America instead, and paying a fortune to buy Bankers Trust. Gitic's bankers had nursed hopes that the Chinese government would bail them out. One of Hong Kong's expatri- ate Scots compares them to the damned in the fires of Hell: 'They cry unto the Lord, saying: Lord, Lord, we didna ken. And the Lord says: Well, ye ken the noo.'
Previous page
