A finance director threw an analyst out of a company results presentation in Hong Kong because he disagreed with the analyst’s negative views, in a rare example of a company lashing out personally and publicly against its critics.

香港一家公司的财务总监在公司业绩发布会上把一名分析师驱离会场，只因为他不同意这名分析师的负面看法。这是企业在个人层面公开对批评者大发雷霆的罕见案例。

Chris Lee, chief financial officer of Pax Global, a maker of electronic payment terminals for retailers, asked Timothy Lam, an equity analyst at Macquarie, to leave before the meeting started.

百富环球(Pax Global)面向零售商制造电子支付终端。其首席财务官李书沸(Chris Lee)在会议开始前要求麦格理(Macquarie)股票分析师林子谦(Timothy Lam)离开会场。

Mr Lam, who eventually complied, is one of only two analysts of the 19 tracked by Bloomberg to have a negative rating on the company. The other, Leping Huang of Nomura, downgraded his view from “neutral” to “reduce” only after the incident — which observers say also highlights broader transparency issues. “While we do not judge this dispute, we think this may hurt Pax Global’s shareholder value,” Mr Huang told clients yesterday.

最终服从要求的林子谦，是彭博(Bloomberg)追踪的19名分析师中，仅有的两名给予百富环球负面评级的分析师之一。另一人是野村证券(Nomura)的黄乐平，他只是在这起事件之后才把自己对百富环球的评级从“中性”降至“减持”；观察人士表示，这起事件还暴露了更广泛的透明度问题。“尽管我们不评判这起纠纷，但我们认为这可能损害百富环球的股东价值，”黄乐平昨日告诉客户。

In a video shared on social media, Mr Lee is seen saying: “I didn’t invite you — out! You don’t have the right to stay here.” Mr Lam’s responses are inaudible. Mr Lee then replies, while taking the seated Mr Lam by the arm: “No, no, no, you are not; we didn’t send out anything, escort him out! That’s your umbrella, take it, go . . . ”

从社交媒体上分享的一段视频中，可以看到李书沸在说：“我没有邀请你——出去！你没有权利坐在这里。”林子谦的回应声音较轻，在视频中听不见。李书沸然后开口回应，同时抓住仍然坐着的林子谦的手臂：“不，不，不，你没有；我们没有发过任何东西，把他带出去！这是你的伞，拿着，走好……”

Shares in the company, which has a market capitalisation of around $975m, were 4 per cent lower at their weakest point, but closed 2.1 per cent lower at HK$6.64. Trading volumes were triple its average level.

该公司的市值约为9.75亿美元，昨日股价一度下跌4%，最终收跌于6.64港元，跌幅达2.1%。交易量达到平时水平的三倍。

In a statement, Mr Lee expressed regrets over his behaviour at Wednesday’s briefing and said he was “not against anyone or any institution that expresses their view”. He added: “It is not unacceptable taking a bearish view on us however . . . analysts as high-calibre professionals should be responsible for what they express in any professional publication.”

李书沸在一份声明中对自己在周三发布会上的行为表达歉意，并称“并非针对个别机构及人员去表达意见”。他补充说：“我原意亦非对看空的观点就不能忍受，但是分析师作为专业人员，本人理解其理应对所发表的意见尽责。”

The scene caused a stir in a city where analysts and bankers are used to companies with a tendency to be less than forthcoming. “If this were in Korea or Taiwan I wouldn’t be surprised. In Hong Kong, however, everyone sees these meetings as open season so if a company didn’t want the discussion or had something to hide, they usually just wouldn’t hold one,” said Keith Pogson, head of Asia financial services at EY and a member of the city’s Listing Committee, which approves all new entrants to the stock market.

在分析师和银行家们对企业不愿公开实情习以为常的香港，赶走分析师的一幕引发轰动。“如果这是在韩国或是台湾，我不会感到惊讶。然而在香港，大家都把这类会议视为开放季节，如果一家公司不想讨论或者有事情要隐藏，他们通常干脆不举行会议，”安永(EY)亚洲金融服务业务主管、负责审批香港上市申请的上市委员会成员包凯(Keith Pogson)表示。

The skirmish comes as lawmakers and others have been voicing concerns about wider issues of free speech in the Chinese territory.

这起小冲突发生之际，立法会议员和其他人纷纷对这个中国特别行政区的整体言论自由问题表示关注。

Mr Lam said in a client note yesterday: “We believe all analysts should be able to attend analyst briefing, regardless of their view on the company.”

林子谦昨日在一份发给客户的简报中表示：“我们相信所有分析师都应该能够参加分析师会议，无论其对公司看法如何。”

Mr Lee told the Hong Kong Economic Journal, a Chinese language daily newspaper in the city, that Mr Lam had failed to “investigate the truth”.

李书沸对中文的《香港经济日报》(Hong Kong Economic Journal)表示，林子谦未能“调查真相”。

Mr Lee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

李书沸没有立即回应记者的置评请求。