shirley.yam@scmp.com

I put my first HK$50,000 into HSBC Holdings shares and thousands more afterwards.

I have given my three-year-old one lot of HSBC shares, plus a teddy bear, on each of her birthdays. Like many of my peers, and many of you, I was a die-hard HSBC supporter.

I had my first outing at the "Lion Bank". A photo of me as a girl and Stein the Lion still sits in my drawer.

So, what's going to happen with PCCW (SEHK: 0008)? What if I tell you Richard Li Tzar-kai will split it into two entities - a telecommunications company and a non-telecommunications one - and list the former in the future? You will say I must be joking. Isn't the privatisation in doubt now with regulators investigating allegations of share-rigging?