Hong Kong’s anti-trust watchdog has launched proceedings against a “building maintenance cartel” that had allegedly secured contracts at multiple housing estates worth nearly HK$700 million through bid-rigging and other illicit practices. A building covered with scaffold nets in Kennedy Town on December 8, 2025. File photo: Kelly Ho/HKFP. The Competition Commission said on Wednesday that it had filed lawsuits against eight construction firms and 12 individuals in the Competition Tribunal for “serious anti-competitive conduct,” including bid-rigging, price-fixing, market-sharing, and the exchange of sensitive information.
The syndicate allegedly won contracts at 11 estates, including the fire-hit Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po, through illicit means between April 2022 and September 2023.
The anti-trust watchdog said that its investigation followed a referral from the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) in January 2024 and that the two authorities conducted two joint operations later that year.
“Internal communications of the syndicate obtained during our search operations reveal their ambition to corner a quarter of Hong Kong’s building maintenance market through illicit means,” Rasul Butt, CEO of the Competition Commission, said in a statement.
“The filing of the case today signifies that the Commission’s enforcement work in the building maintenance sector has entered the litigation stage – and I must emphasise that this is just the beginning.”
‘Homework’
The anti-trust watchdog said the cartel comprised a mastermind scouting for building maintenance projects, several contractors, and middlemen.
After a project was chosen, a contractor would be assigned to be the “main character” – the intended winner of the tender – while the rest served as “helpers” by providing “cover bids,” according to the Competition Commission.
The mastermind would then make pricing instructions, which the syndicate reportedly dubbed “homework,” and deliver them either personally or through middlemen, it said. Tender documents and contracts of a major renovation project in Tai Po’s Wang Fuk Court kept by a resident. File photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. The contracts won by the syndicate were scattered across eight districts in Hong Kong, with five projects having been completed and two currently under way.
The commission is asking the Competition Tribunal to impose fines and disqualify six individuals from serving as company directors.
The 12 individuals charged include Cheung Kwing-kuen, allegedly the mastermind of the syndicate, five alleged middlemen, and six contractors.
The firms named are: Smart Goal Construction Engineering, Lermond Development Group, Dream Building Construction Engineering, Cheung Lee Construction, Ngai Lam Building Construction, Wang Yat Construction, Wai Yip Development Construction, and Chun Hung Construction & Engineering.
ICAC prosecutions
Meanwhile, the anti-graft watchdog ICAC said on Wednesday that it had laid corruption charges against five people, aged 42 to 70, over renovation projects totalling HK$90 million at three housing estates.
The defendants included Cheung and his former employee Chow Shuk-ha, both of whom are also named in the Competition Commission’s prosecutions on Wednesday.
The ICAC alleged that the defendants offered bribes to an estate management committee member or flat owners in exchange for assisting a contractor to win projects, or persuading other residents not to overturn tenders. In these cases, the bribes were rejected.
Crackdown on bid-rigging
The Competition Commission’s and the ICAC’s prosecutions mark an intensifying crackdown on bid-rigging in the city’s building maintenance market, which was thrown into the spotlight after November’s fatal fire at Wang Fuk Court. A man looks at the fire-hit Wang Fuk Court following the deadly blaze in late November 2025. File photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. A public inquiry into the fire is ongoing. During a hearing on Tuesday, Lester Lee, executive director of legal services at the Competition Commission, described bid-rigging as a long-term plague. Explainer: How deadly Tai Po fire brings to light bid-rigging epidemic in Hong Kong renovation industry “The commission has observed persistent, systemic, and widespread anti-competitive behaviours,” Lee said in Cantonese.
“We are of the view that the issue is all over Hong Kong, Kowloon, and New Territories… It involves a vast number of contractors, as well as a fair amount of consultants,” he added.