King Fung

"Slater Walker had earlier purchased a Singapore-based pharmaceutical firm, Haw Par Brothers (Hong Kong) Limited, which was listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange—a fact that was allimportant. Haw Par bought a controlling interest in King Fung, which would be the main vehicle for what was to follow for SPP."

"ust after the Haw Par—King Fung deal was closed in March 1972, Peter Munk had already laid out a strategic objective for the new SPP. The shares of King Fung/SPP had become enormously overvalued. So unless some substance was added to the company, its shares were vulnerable to a correction in market price. Peter Munk’s urgent goal was to increase the real asset base and underlying value of SPP of Hong Kong, so he had to buy assets that were undervalued with SPP’s paper. Munk’s attention now focused on Travelodge Australia Ltd. (TAL), an Australian hotel chain, the largest in the region, that was in a tourist-related business somewhat like that of SPP. It owned and operated hotels across Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and in many South Pacific islands and nations. Travelodge expanded too fast. They were the biggest hotel operators in the Pacific and the fourth or fifth largest Australian company. They were expanding into New Guinea, into Tahiti, into Japan, and they just ran out of money. Their shares went down from $5 to the $1.50 range."