Page 12 - Sphere No.5 (Feb 2002)

of the world. “After Hong Kong has
closed, Wall Street opens” says Sung,
“so after 10.30 at night is another peak
period for us.”
P ULLING P OWER
Thanks to the staunch and resourceful
support from its parent companies, in
the short year of its existence Metro
Finance has established a credible
name unmatched in the industry. As a
result, it has been able to invite media-
shy personalities to appear exclusively
on Metro Finance. Celebrity guests and
hosts have included Frederick Ma and
Francis Yuen, Executive Director and
Vice Chairman of Pacific Century
CyberWorks respectively; Francis
Leung, Chairman of Salomon Smith
Barney Asia, also nicknamed “The King
of Red Chips”; Charles Chan, chairman
of ITC Corporation; Vincent Cheng,
Chief Executive of Hang Seng Bank;
David Li, Chairman and Chief
Executive of Bank of East Asia; and
T. C. Chan, Country Corporate Officer
of Citibank. And the list goes on.
Such a stellar gathering draws great
They see the value of using Metro
Finance as a platform.”
Quality research reports are made
available to the masses; in return, Sung
says, these companies gain broking
business and brand recognition among
their target audience.
Because of the tremendous influ-
ence the guests and hosts of Metro
Finance wield, the channel commands
the attention of a predominantly
“high-net-worth” audience.
One evening, a woman listener
phoned in and asked the programme
host, an investment adviser, a ten-mil-
lion-dollar question: “I have HK$10
million (about US$1.28 million) sitting
in my account, what should I do with
it?” she asked. Sung admits he is
always surprised by just how “loaded”
his listeners are, and this puts further
pressure on him to be sure of every
piece of information released.
MARKET NICHE
The Metro Finance team’s hard work
and diligence have paid off. According
to a research survey conducted by the
numbers of listeners. “On one occa-
sion we had fans waiting outside our
studio for Francis Yuen’s autograph,”
Sung reveals. “They almost broke
down the glass doors.”
Securities houses are supportive,
too. “We have no problem attracting
top analysts to appear on our shows,”
says Sung. “In fact, we have a couple
of programmes sponsored by them.
“We have
no problem
attracting
top analysts
to appear
on our
shows .”
M E D I A