120 years of SCMP: Hong Kong’s property, finance, ESG and technology through pens and strokes of our journalists

Peggy Sito, Enoch Yiu, Eric Ng and Bien Perez are among the longest-serving veterans at the South China Morning Post

With more than a century of experience between them, their stories recount Hong Kong’s transformation in real estate, finance, ESG and technology

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Journalists of the Post celebrating at the 21st Consumer Rights Reporting Award on 31 August 2021. (L to R) Deputy Business Editor Peggy Sito, former Property Editor Sandy Li, former Senior Correspondent Lam Ka Sing, and Climate News Editor Eric Ng. Photo: Edmond So

Published: 10:30am, 7 Nov 2023Updated: 4:12pm, 8 Nov 2023

A day after Hong Kong’s wealthiest man closed what was in 2018 the world’s largest real estate deal, Peggy Sito was assigned to figure out how a consortium of buyers would share the spoils of the HK$40.2 billion (US$5.15 billion) office tower they just bought from Li Ka-shing.

It was an assignment that involved numerous searches of company registrations, corporate filings, dozens of interviews and phone calls, in addition to her duty as the Deputy Business Editor at the South China Morning Post.

Three months later, she published an exclusive story. The consortium’s 10 buyers would pick ping pong balls painted with numbers out of a hat, in an unusual ritual to determine who would be the first to pick from the 73 floors at The Center.

It was a story that won Sito State Street’s “Journalist of the Year” award that year, one of many in her three-decade career at the Post. “This assignment was particularly interesting [because] the process of uncovering the details bit by bit was exciting,” she said. “The happiest moment came when the article received the [State Street] award.”