On the other hand, if revenue from our Connected Customers further increase, over-reliance on Connected Customers may affect our operational independency, as such Connected Customers, many of which are controlled by one or more of our Directors or Controlling Shareholders, may be able to exert excessive influence on us. For details, please see the section ‘‘Relationship with Controlling Shareholders’’.

# Labour shortages or increases in labour costs could harm our business, reduce our profitability and slow our growth.

Experienced professional staff and other labour are important for the operation of our businesses, and therefore, our success depends in part on our ability to attract, retain and motivate a sufficient number of qualified engineers, construction workers and the engagement of subcontractors for certain labour intensive works. Qualified individuals in the relevant industries are in short supply and competition for workers is intense.

Any future inability to recruit and retain qualified individuals may delay the completion of our works and could result in deduction of liquidated and ascertained damages from the contract sum payable to our Group. Any such delays could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. In addition, competition for qualified construction workers could also require us to pay higher wages, which could result in higher labour costs. For example, in Macau, given that it only has a total population of slightly above half a million and there have been a large number of construction projects in recent years, the labour market in Macau has been tight and average labour costs in Macau have increased significantly.

Moreover, the minimum wage requirement in Hong Kong has increased and can continue to increase our labour costs in the future. The salary level of construction workers in Hong Kong has been increasing in the past several years. As for the PRC market, there was an increase in labour cost over the past few years and the average annual wage of employees in the PRC construction industry is expected to continue to increase in the coming years. Some of our revenues, in particular in the E&M Engineering Segment, are generated from agreements with terms over one year. Most of such agreements do not contain labour cost adjustment mechanism, and we may fail to anticipate or may be unable to transfer the full impact of the increase in labour cost to our customers in the relevant agreements with such mechanism. In such or other cases, we may not be able to increase our prices in order to pass these increased labour costs on to our customers for contracts without price adjustments, in which case our business and results of operations would be negatively affected.

# Any change or deterioration of our relationship with, and the performance of, ourj oint venture partners and third party service providers may have an adverse impact on our business operation and reputation.

For the operations of our E&M Engineering Segment, we often formj oint ventures with other companies in the E&M engineering industry to tender for and carry out the E&M engineering works in major construction projects. We also engage third-party service providers as our subcontractors to perform certain, generally more labour-intensive parts, of the E&M engineering works. Any change or deterioration of our relationship with, and the performance of, such third-parties may have adverse impact on our business operation and reputation

# . We are dependent on subcontractors, and in some projects our joint venture partners, to implement certain contracts.

We are dependent on subcontractors to implement certain contracts in our E&M Engineering Segment. As we generally do not sign any long term contracts with our major subcontractors, there is no assurance that they will be able to continue to provide services to our Group at prices acceptable to us or whether we can maintain our relationship with them in the future. In the event that any of the

major subcontractors is unable to provide the required services to us and we are unable to obtain alternative providers on similar or more favourable terms, or if the costs for them to provide those required services increase substantially, our business, results of operations and profitability may be adversely affected.

For the E&M engineering works for major construction projects, we often formj oint ventures with other companies to tender for and carry out the E&M engineering works. There is no assurance that our existingj oint venture partners will continue to cooperate with us to continue to tender for and perform E&M engineering works for future projects, or on terms that are favourable or acceptable to us. If we are unable to cooperate with appropriatej oint venture partners, we may not have sufficient resources to participate in major construction projects, or if we are engaged in such projects as the sole contractor or a subcontractor, we will have to bear significant risks in relation to such projects.

We are not able to monitor the performance of our subcontractors or joint venture partners or their respective staff as directly and efficiently as with our own staff. If a subcontractor fails to provide services as required under a contract or aj oint venture partner fails to perform its responsibility as agreed, we may be required to procure other companies to perform these services on a delayed basis or at a higher price than anticipated, which could impact our profitability. If a subcontractor’s performance does not meet our standards or if aj oint venture partner’s performance does not meet the requirements which the relevant joint venture has agreed to, the quality of the project may be affected, which could harm our reputation and potentially expose us to litigation and damage claims. We may also need to undertake remedial works and therefore may increase our costs and adversely affect business and results of operations.

# . Responsibility for quality of services provided by third party service providers.

Under the terms of the contracts between our customers and us, we would not be relieved from any obligation or liability in respect of the performance of the third party service providers, and we would be responsible for the acts, defaults or neglects of them. We cannot assure you that the services rendered by any of our third party service providers will always be satisfactory or meet our customers’ quality and safety standards and timing requirement. If the performance of any third party service provider is not up to the standard required by our customers, we may need to replace such third party service provider or take other actions to remedy the situation, which could adversely affect the cost and progress of our projects and may have an adverse impact on our reputation and our ability to obtain new contracts.

# . We may incur potential liabilities arising from defaults of our third party service providers.

As the principal contractor, we may be liable to settle the outstanding wages of the employees of our third-party service providers, including self-employed ones, pursuant to the Employment Ordinance and liable to pay compensation to the injured employees of our third party service providers pursuant to the Employees’ Compensation Ordinance. Given the above, any defaults or neglects on the part of the third party service providers may also have an adverse impact on our profitability and financial conditions as we might be liable for any such defaults or neglects. Any of these factors could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial conditions and results of operations.

# . Potential competition with joint venture partners and subcontractors.

Small-scale third party service providers may expand their business operations by accumulating work experience, improving their financial strength and diversifying their scope of services over time. Such small-scale subcontractors may become sizable and achieve a market reputation in the future that may be comparable to us. Our joint venture partners, who may often be our direct competitors,