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The following is issued on behalf of the Housing Authority:
The Government has never given any undertaking to retain the Manager of The Link Management Limited before the listing of The Link Real Estate Investment Trust (The Link REIT), a spokesman for the Housing Authority (HA) said today (August 22) in response to press enquiries.
¡§The Link Management Limited is a private corporation independent of the Government or Housing Authority after the public listing,¡¨ the spokesman said.
In accordance with provisions of the Trust Deed, the Board of Directors should be appointed by unit holders. The Government and the Housing Authority are in no position to interfere.
According to the corporate governance policy, at least half of the Board must be independent non-executive Directors. The Chairman of the Board must be an independent non-executive director and an independent director must be an individual who is not closely related to or involved with any significant holder.
The spokesman reiterated that the Government and the HA had no intention of buying back from the market any units of The Link REIT.
The spokesman said that there was ample mechanism to ensure the retail and car-parking facilities in public housing estates be maintained.
¡§In the government leases (commonly known as "land leases") relating to the properties which The Link REIT acquired from the HA, there are stipulations on the land use of the lots concerned. Owing to such land-use restrictions, those properties must continue to be used for retail or car-parking purposes, which cannot be changed at will. To make a change to the land lease, the prior consent of the Government and of all the parties to the leases must be obtained,¡¨ he said.
¡§In other words, any change to the management or control of these properties would not affect the continued use of those properties for retail or car-parking purposes,¡¨ the spokesman added.
Ends/Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Issued at HKT 19:21
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