Jailed tycoon bids for aircraft carrier
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Agencies via China Daily, July 14, 2011
Eagle Vantage Asset Management, a Hong Kong-based investment firm controlled by Huang Guangyu, has put a bid for decomissioned British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, planning to turn the warship into a floating showground for hi-tech products.
"We put a bid in May and the results will come up later this month," Eagle Vantage spokesman Zhao Qiguang told Reuters. He declined to give details of the bid or how much the firm would invest in the project.
Hong Kong's South China Morning Post reported on Wednesday that Huang's company would tow the carrier to Hong Kong or Macau before refitting it.
Huang was not involved in the bidding process, or the management's decision to enter a bid, Zhao added.
Huang, the founder of Gome Electrical Appliance Holding Ltd, has been serving a 14-year prison sentence in China since May for bribery and insider trading. Huang has been fighting for control of China's second-largest home appliance retailer, in which he is a controlling shareholder with about a one-third stake.
Gome was not involved in the aircraft carrier auction and Eagle Vantage was not a subsidiary of the Hong Kong-listed company, a Gome spokeswoman said.
The tender for the 19,000-ton light aircraft carrier closed on July 6, according to an advertisement on the website of Britain's Disposal Services Authority.
