	hk hotels soars on takeover speculation the price of hongkong and shanghai hotels ltd shlh hk s stock soared on speculation of a takeover battle between major shareholders the kadoorie family and the evergo industrial enterprise ltd evgh hk group stock brokers said they noted heavy buying in hk hotel shares after an announcement by evergo s china entertainment and land investment co ltd unit that it bought about pct of hk hotels from the firm s deputy chairman david liang for billion dlrs the stock rose h k dlrs to dlrs today thomas lau evergo s executive director declined comment on whether the group is seeking a further stake in hk hotels but he told reuters the group will hold the pct stake bought from liang as long term investment he said evergo was attracted by the underlying strength of hk hotels analysts said evergo may be looking for a possible redevelopment of the peninsula hotel one of asia s best known hotels and another site on hong kong island both are owned by hk hotels lai sun garment co ltd yesterday said it uired a pct stake in hk hotels from liang for mln dlrs lau denied any link between china entertainment and lai sun on their uisitions of the hk hotels stake it is purely coincidence he said but analysts were not so certain saying that the evergo group which has a reputation as a corporate raider may team up with lai sun garment for a takeover lau also denied any contact with the kadoorie family which analysts estimate has more than pct of hk hotels michael kadoorie is chairman of hk hotels lau said two representatives of evergo will be nominated to the hk hotels board a source close to the kadoorie family said the family has not considered any countermoves so far analysts said it would be difficult for evergo and the kadoorie family to cooperate because of different management styles evergo may want to split up the hotel management and property developments of hk hotels but that strategy may not fit the conservative kadoorie family said an analyst who asked not to be named another analyst noted the price of hk hotels had been distorted by the takeover talks because its net asset value is only worth about dlrs a share the offers by evergo and lai sun were for dlrs a share though that is well below the current trading price trading was suspended today in shares of lai sun evergo china entertainment and the group s associate chinese estates ltd chinese estates lost cents to dlrs yesterday china entertainment five to dlrs and evergo one to cents lai sun gained cents to dlrs reuter 
