If markets are efficient then Chan Chun Chuen must be the world's most mesmerizing fortune teller. The story behind Nina Wang's will has a plot that would make a fantastic movie.

Mr. Chan was the personal fortune teller for Hong Kong's wealthiest heiress, Nina Wang and according to France24, Wang -- who died recently of cancer -- left her $4.2 billion estate to Chan. To the best of my knowledge, he will be the world's wealthiest fortune teller if he wins the legal battle with Nina's father-in-law over the will.

And there's the rub: Wang, who had no children, inherited the fortune from her husband Teddy Wang who disappeared in 1990 after being kidnapped. Although his wife paid half of the $60 million ransom Teddy's captors demanded, his body was never found and he was declared dead nine years later.

Hong Kong, the archetype for the most free form of capitalism, has an after-effect of such rapid growth: Pollution. Hong Kong's air pollutant concentrations are now 200% above the norms set by the World Health Organization, according to The Economist.

Hong Kong has been attempting to blame China for its environment woes, but a more recent study shows the economic powerhouse's problems are self-inflicted. The cause is from the usual suspects -- cars, ships and coal-fired power plants.

Hong Kong has taken the first step in evaluating the causes for pollution by hiring more credible firms to do the work. Why? The answer is business. Hong Kong is becoming increasingly known as a less desirable place to work, leading to much higher salaries to attract talented workers. Unless the pay is big, experienced execs do not want to go there.

Business is now forcing Hong Kong to go green, expect this to happen in other areas of the world as well.

China's largest bank, the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., has shown its planned date for its long-awaited IPO. The price will be determined on October 23 and it should debut for trading on October 27, assuming there are no major market changes. Its stock will initially only be listed in Hong Kong and Shanghai. This may make it hard for US and European retail investors and many US-only institutions to participate in what appears to be the world's biggest initial public offering ever.

ICBC hopes to raise up to an equivalent of $19 billion and if this amount is raised it would break the IPO record of $18.4 Billion raised in the 1998 IPO of Japan's mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo.

Before any over-allotments over subscriber indications, ICBC plans to issue 13 billion A shares priced in Chinese currency in Shanghai and 35.39 billion H shares. The actual price range is not indicated, but that is equal to 14.8% of its share capital. The company has indicated that up to 16.7 percent of total capital could be raised if the subscriptions come in higher than expected. If these numbers are accurate on the base amount, it would put the overall equivalent market cap of "ICBC" at roughly $128 billion. That number may not be accurate because of share discrepancies, but there is over one month yet to figure out the comparative details.

PRIOR CAPITAL RAISED

"ICBC" already plans to sell IPO shares worth $3.5 billion to strategic investors from government investment agencies from Kuwait, Qatar and Singapore. It also received a commitment in June from China's social security fund to invest an equivalent of $2.25 billion in the bank. Another group of global financial powerhouses including Goldman Sachs, American Express and Allianz AG invested about $3.78 billion back in January, 2006. That totals over $9.5 billion raised so far in capital this year alone and not all of that may be on the prospectus by the actual IPO date. ICBC listed assets of 6.5 trillion Yuan ($800 billion) as of the end of 2005.