A Bloomberg (December 20) report said after examination of hundreds of Hong Kong Land Registry documents, it found that China's Liaison Office owns properties in more than 20 buildings across the city, with an estimated value of more than $1.5 billion. It described the figure as conservative. The properties⁠—most of which were acquired after Hong Kong’s 1997 handover from Britain—include office towers and upscale apartments used to house staff. In February, a subsidiary paid HK$248 million for 20 apartments in the Grand Central Complex, a project in the city’s Kwun Tong district. That’s an average price tag equivalent to $1.6 million per apartment. The Liaison Office purchased its Sai Wan building, called The Westpoint, directly in 2001 and has done the same with several more properties over the years. Others are held by a private company called Newman Investment whose shareholders are members of the Liaison Office's finance department. Billionaire Henry Cheng’s New World Development, one of Hong Kong's biggest property companies, was formerly a shareholder of Newman Investment in the 1970s, filings show.  It also claimed the Liaison Office and its subsidiary companies have received more than HK$206.5 million ($27 million) of stamp-duty exemptions on at least 91 property deals, according to data provided by Hong Kong’s Inland Revenue Department on deals dating to 2012. This includes a record value of exemptions this year for the Liaison Office⁠—HK$80.4 million on 22 transactions, most of which were approved after pro-democracy protests started in June. 

(Comment: Bloomberg said New World said it doesn’t have a relationship with Newman Investment and didn’t sell the company to the Liaison Office.)