【Acrylic Painting by Dennis Tang】
(Paintings and Photos may not be relevant to the incident described)
A tremendous acquisition war in the history of Hong Kong among Hong Kong Land, Sir Sik-nin Chau and Chinese property developer Chinachem group Wang Teh-Huei was declared in 1972 when the parties competed for the control over Dairy Farm. Taking advantage of the stock market situation at that time, Hong Kong Land was able to implement its financial technique for a hostile takeover and eventually acquired Dairy Farm. During that period, the stock market in Hong Kong had also entered a state of madness. Retail investors believed in the myth of ‘buying stocks to get rich’ and resulted in phenomena such as consuming expensive food like ‘shark fin soup with rice’ or conducting ‘full-time stock trading’. Hang Seng Index climbed up from 323 on 28 January 1972 to the peak of 1774.96 on 9 March 1973. Tragically, market fluctuations triggered panic among retail investors who were lack of investment knowledge. On 10 December 1974, Hang Seng Index fell down to 150.11, an accumulated drop of 91.54%!
