In April 1999, what looked like a risky property financing deal landed on the desk of SJ Wong, then head of BNP Prime Peregrine's equity capital markets division. It would turn out to change the face of Asia's technology and telecommunications industry and, in the process, transform the career of the man who brought it to market.
The deal came from a Singapore-listed company called Pacific Century Regional Development Pacific Century, controlled by Richard Li, the son of Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing. Li wanted to execute a reverse takeover of Tricom, a Hong Kong-listed telecommunications equipment manufacturer, by injecting some property assets into it and would then...
