After a fantastic year for IPO’s on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx), it was not at all surprising that a standing-room only crowd at the Prospectus and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC 2010) Convention in Toronto was eager to hear from visiting Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Professor K.C. Chan, and HKEx Chairman, Ronald Arculli, about Hong Kong and on how HKEx has become one of the most active markets in the world.
HKEx ranked Number 1 globally in 2009 for IPO fundraising (US$31.3 billion), and Number 4 globally in terms of total fund raised, including post-IPO, of US$81.4 billion. A total of 73 companies were newly listed on HKEx and they included overseas companies which have listed their Greater China related business operations in Hong Kong. “Companies are attracted to list in Hong Kong to benefit from our market’s liquidity, attractive valuations and access to investors in Asia,” said Professor Chan.
2010 has already started off well, Professor Chan said at the PDAC Seminar in March on “Listing and Capital Raising in Hong Kong for Mining and Natural Resources Companies”, with SouthGobi Energy Resources, owned by Canada’s Ivanhoe Mines, raising USD$439 million through a secondary listing on the HKEx, just days after Russia’s UC Rusal, the world’s largest aluminium producer and the first ever non-Asian company to have a primary listing in Hong Kong, raised USD$2.24 billion.
It is expected that at least nine other foreign mining companies will be listing in HKEx this year, said the Secretary, some of which are from Canada. Professor Chan encouraged Canadian natural resources companies in particular to list on the HKEx so as to take advantage of China’s seemingly insatiable appetite for raw materials, as well as the liquidity afforded by the Mainland’s wealthy, upper and middle-class who are very active investors on the HKEx. He pointed out that companies incorporated in British Columbia and Ontario are acceptable for listing in Hong Kong and that HKEx has adopted international standards and practices to facilitate dual listings, with no capital controls and no capital reporting requirements. Continue reading ‘Hong Kong – A Global Centre for Raising Capital’
In 2009, Fortune Magazine named Jing Ulrich, one of the 50 most powerful women in Business. Who is she you may ask? Ms. Ulrich is the Managing Director, Chairman of China Equities and Commodities at JPMorgan Chase & Co. And in a recent interview with the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), Ulrich discusses China’s economic recovery, its future growth, monetary policy, and the new partnership between Shanghai and Hong Kong to offer financial services, just to name a few. It’s an informative discussion and definitely worth listening to.
Check out the interview for a look at how JPMorgan Chase views China.
The public has spoken and 8.6 million passengers have ranked South Korea’s Incheon airport in Seoul as the world’s best airport. The survey, taken upon by Skytrax, a research advisory firm for the air transport industry, was marked by the tightest race in the award’s 10-year history. At one point it was looking like there would be a three way tie for first place. Rounding off the top five airports include Hong Kong’s International Airport, Singapore’s Changi, Zurich, and Munich. Passengers were asked questions based on 39 service and product criteria ranging from check-in, to transfers to departures.
Incheon jumps up two spots from last year’s third place ranking surpassing the previous first and second place holders, Hong Kong and Singapore, respectively. It is a relatively new airport having just opening its doors in 2007 after replacing Gimpo, South Korea’s former main international airport. Gimpo is now used mainly for domestic flights, although it does have shuttle flights to Tokyo, Shanghai, and Osaka.
Asia as a whole did quite well in this survey as of the over 190 airports in the ranking, six of the top 10 were in Asia. For this survey, the research firm also ranked airports by region, and on a category basis.
Skytrax has been around since 1989 and its website has reviews for over 680 airports. It is also known for it’s other surveys. Readers will remember that back in April, Skytrax released other survey results where Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific won the top prize as the world’s best airline.
Photo from Wikipedia.org
During Stockwell Day’s recent trade mission promoting Canadian building systems and energy-efficient construction companies to China and Japan, the federal government’s Minister of International Trade and Minister of Asia-Pacific Gateway’s also used the visit to announce the launch of six new Canada-China science and technology research collaborations. These projects, partly funding by $6.87 million of Canadian funds, is part of the government’s International Science and Technology Partnerships Program (ISTPP). The projects differ, ranging from healthcare and climate change to wastewater treatment and wireless technology.
ISTPP is a $20 million five-year program administered by ISTPCanada, a non-profit organization. The program aims to encourage commercialization by bringing together key stakeholders in both countries from the private and public sectors. Collaboartion with universities have their place as well as being important hubs of knowledge and innovation.
Canada’s partnership with China was launched in January 2007 with the focus on energy, including fuel cells; environment, life sciences and biotechnology; agricultural foods and bioproducts; and information and communications technologies and nanotechnology. In May 2008, the inaugural 20 projects (worth more than $11 million) were unveiled.
China is not the only nation that with which Canada has science and technology agreements. Canada has also signed partnerships with Brazil, India and Israel.
Other than supporting research and development projects, ISTPCanada also supports development activities such as workshops, symposia, conferences etc., with the goal of promoting international research collaboration.
If you think your business could fit into these categories, it is worth a following up. Take a look at the backgrounder from this media release/backgrounder for a complete list of the six projects and their partnering organizations.
Photo by Dominik Mayer of the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum
Cathay Pacific was honored as the world’s best airline at the Skytrax World Airline Awards on April 1. This prestigious prize was the result of an eight month-long survey of almost 16 million travelers from 97 countries.
The Hong Kong airliner, Cathay Pacific, was not the only Asian airline honored. In fact, carriers from Asia and the Pacific were overwhelmingly present. Singapore Airlines, Asiana Airlines, Qatar Airways, Emirates, Qantas, Etihad Airways, Air New Zealand, Malaysia Airlines and Thai Airways round of the top 10, respectively. Continue reading ‘Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific flies off with world’s best airline title’
A positive economist might be an oxymoron, especially nowadays, but not according to Mark Mullins, Executive Director of the Fraser Institute, an international education and research organization. Mullins was the keynote speaker at “Weathering Market Turmoil,” an event co-hosted by the Institute and the Hong Kong Canada Business Association. Mullins gave an overview of world markets, starting 300 years ago in the 1700s all the way to today’s crisis. While not saying that he can predict when the world’s economy will turn around, Mullins did note some areas of encouragement. He highlighted that:
- Stock markets are cyclical by nature.
- Stock markets have shown signs of stabilizing since November.
- There is a need to watch for stock markets to hit bottom as they do so about four to six months before an upturn.
- Like the stock markets, interest rates have been volatile since late 2007, but are also leveling of and can be an indication of stability. Rates are still decreasing, but there is less “stress”, as he puts it.
- Interest rates and stock markets and linked and their stabilization are a positive sign.
His presentation was broken down into five main sections: lessons of history; market outlook; economic outlook; policy and politics; and implications for China. For the latter, Mullins notes that China has promptly and aggressively taken steps to battle the financial crisis, which he believes lays a good foundation for future growth. He also outlined from the Institute’s Economic Freedom of the World: 2008 Annual Report, the progress that China has made and needs to make, specifically in regards to their size of government, legal structure of property rights, access to sound money, freedom to trade, and regulation.
Photo by ArtemFinland
“As we strengthen our work on domestic intellectual property rights, we will continue to promote international exchanges and cooperation in order to encourage the healthy development of trade relations.”
This was part of the statement made by Yao Jian from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce after the World Trade Organization (WTO) stated that China must institute more complex laws to battle copyright infringement. This WTO ruling is the result of a United States suit brought against China in 2007 claiming that certain parts of China’s intellectual property rights (IPR) regime is not compliant with its Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) arrangement. This 2007 suit came after seven years of bilateral discussions between the US and China did not resolve the issues. The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), a grouping of US music and movie producers, authors and other private sector groups, estimate that China’s IPR regime cost more than $3.7 billion (USD) in lost sales. The IIPA was formed in 1984 in bilateral and multilateral efforts to improve international protection of copyrighted materials. Continue reading ‘WTO tells China it must do more to combat copyright infringement’
For the first time, Beijing has out-ranked Hong Kong in a cost of living survey. Its rise is mostly attributed to the rising inflation on mainland China and the appreciation of the Yuan (even though it has leveled off recently). This is according to a survey released by ECA International, a UK based international human resources firm. Hong Kong actually fell 12 spots while Beijing leapt 70 places from 101 to 31. Luanda, Angola was ranked as the most expensive overall, retaining the ranking from 2007. Tokyo was the most expensive Asian city, ranked 2nd overall. Shanghai rose from being 106 in September 2007 to 35. London, UK sits at 72, Seoul at 90 and Manhattan jumped to the fill the 20th spot (the same level as Paris), last year it was 54. No Canadian city made it in the top 50.
The ECA survey is sent out twice per year and includes comparing the prices of 128 consumer goods and services purchased by expatriates in over 370 countries. ECA notes that the survey results from September 2007 and March 2008 were heavily influenced by inflation and exchange rate fluctuations. Visit ECA website for their media release and the complete rankings.
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What’s wrong with this story:
Jason Tempo walks into his first in-person business meeting with Mr. James Tsang, the CEO a Hong Kong firm he had arranged to meet. He initially says, “Sorry, George, for being 10 minutes late, I got lost”. After the apologies, Jason kindly accepts the CEO’s business card, quickly puts it in his pocket and realizes he has left his own cards in his other suit jacket. Jason’s alarm clock was incorrectly set so he woke up late and didn’t have a chance to put on the suit he planned to wear. This, by the way, also contributed to him getting lost. As the conversation progresses, Jason gets the feeling that the meeting is not going to so well. It seems strange to him because the two have been exchanging emails quite frequently for the past few months. This face-to-face meeting could have started and ended much better. What could Jason have done differently? Keep reading to find out what he did wrong and some other tips to ensure you don’t commit any blunders on your next Hong Kong business trip.
- The Handshake. Shaking hands is a common and widely accepted form of greeting, a definite must-do in Hong Kong.
- Business Cards. After the handshake, the exchange of business cards is another important step. Cards are frequently exchanged. If you do not offer yours, it is seen as snub and that you don’t want to do business. Business cards are exchanged in both business as well as social settings, so be prepared at all times. A business card should be given and received with both hands. When giving a card, it should be presented right-side up, facing the receiver. When receiving a card, it is important to look at the card before putting into your pocket, cardholder or placing it on a table.
- Business Card Tip. An added bonus is to have your business card printed so that one side is English and the other in Chinese. Continue reading ‘Do’s and don’ts of Hong Kong business culture’
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When ranked by political stability, government effectiveness, legal and regulatory , macroeconomic risk, and six other factors, Canada and Hong Kong both tied for 11the place for operational risk out of 150 markets in a recent model run by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). Marked an a scale of 0-100, with ten judging criteria, Switzerland was deemed the least risky, taking the first spot, followed by Denmark, Singapore, and Sweden all tied for second place. Myanmar, Guinea, and Iraq were ranked at the bottom. The EIU is a good source of country, industry and management analysis.
Check out the EUI’s Operational risk ratings here.
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