The aborted listing of the Link Real Estate Investment Trust is an isolated incident and will not affect the implementation of other privatisation plans by the Government along the "small government, big market" principle, Secretary for Housing, Planning & Lands Michael Suen says.

The Government will examine carefully all possible factors that may affect the plans and will listen extensively to the views of various parties to ensure their smooth implementation, he said.

Mr Suen told legislators today that more effort will be made to communicate with and brief relevant parties in a more comprehensive manner to avoid any doubt and misgivings.

Listing re-launch

On the impact of the aborted listing, Mr Suen said the Housing Authority has to repeat some preparatory work to re-launch the listing, which will incur additional expenses.

He said the pricing of the Link REIT upon the re-launch and divestment proceeds to the authority may be affected should interest rates go up or investors' sentiments change.

For investors, whilst all their application monies have been refunded in a timely manner, they may suffer a loss in terms of opportunity costs. Brokers lose the chance of earning transaction fees from the listing and subsequent trading of the Link REIT.

Mr Suen said despite this, the incident showcases the strength of Hong Kong's financial and stock market systems, adding the market is orderly and stable.