 |
|
|
||
|
|
|||
 |
|
|
||
|
PRODUCTS AND SOLUTIONS | |||
|
|
|
||
|
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
||
|
|
|||
|
|
|
||
|
PRODUCTS AND SOLUTIONS | |||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
HONG KONG: A good instinct for China
The new representative office in Hong Kong is Eurohypo’s second base in Asia. The main focus is on the real estate market, which is highly attractive but offers little transparency, in China’s densely populated towns and cities.
Anyone wishing to grasp the potential opportunities offered by China’s real estate market must be open to new ideas and thinking big. Alongside mega-cities like Beijing and Shanghai and Hong Kong neighbours, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, you can find cities with names like Hangzhou, Suzhou, Tianjin, Qingdao and Dalian, which few have even heard of. All of these are large towns developing at breakneck speed, having long ago left most major European and US towns and cities standing in terms of the numbers of millions living there. For example, metropolitan Chongqing, which is located in Central China at the confluence of the Yangtse and Jialing rivers, covers an area as large as Austria in which almost 32 million people live, making it the world’s biggest city.
Fundamental differences between the provinces
At the same time, it is important to be aware that this is not one, but numerous real estate markets, all with varying degrees of attractiveness. The various Chinese provinces are not only fundamentally different in size, population density and climate, but also in terms of their developmental stages, value creation levels, economic perspectives and prevailing political and legal framework conditions. Before the potential opportunities offered by China’s as yet bewildering market can be exploited, a degree of, as Antony Zhou says, “illumination” is needed to identify the most interesting growth regions and segments and so limit the potential risks involved.
China plays a major role
And Zhou should know, since, as the Head of the new Hong Kong representative office, this Shanghai-born employee of CIBI Asia-Pacific is responsible for the thorough groundwork to prepare for Eurohypo’s market entry into China. Increasing numbers of international real estate investors are setting their sights on China’s rapidly growing macro-economy. As a result, the future demand for structured finance and consultancy services is anticipated to be correspondingly high. China will subsequently play a major role in the Asia-Pacific network being established in the next few years by Eurohypo under the leadership of Hendrik Gienow.
Hong Kong, which is the Bank’s second base in Asia after Tokyo, is the ideal location from which to carry out the systematic development of the mainland Chinese real estate market. Because of its history as a former British Crown colony, to a large extent, Hong Kong has adapted to Western standards. The small offshore island also makes an excellent springboard from which to reach all the major towns and cities on the mainland.
Another good reason for selecting Hong Kong as the location of choice for the new Eurohypo office is the presence of the long-established Commerzbank branch in Chater Road. Not only has Eurohypo been able to take up residence there, but as Helge Barlen, Head of Business Development China and Korea who has been in the vanguard of advancing the progress of the representative office in Hong Kong, says, Eurohypo will be able to “slip in and operate under the existing Commerzbank banking licence”. And so everything went a little bit faster, helped on especially by the experience gained when Eurohypo Japan was established. At the beginning of January 2007, the Financial Supervisory Authorities of Hong Kong granted approval and just two weeks later on 16 January 2007, the representative office was able to open its doors for business.
Although the establishment of the representative office was carried out at great speed, when it comes to developing the Chinese market, prudence and judgement are the order of the day. “Primarily, it is important to establish the skills to do business here,” Barlen emphasises. The groundwork is set to have been concluded by the end of 2007/beginning of 2008, ready for the first business transactions.
After Japan and Hong Kong, the next milestones on the ambitious CIBI Asia-Pacific agenda are already looming. Barlen: “According to current planning, the Eurohypo Asia-Pacific network will consist of a series of autonomous units with access to the technical platform of the Commerzbank Group in Singapore.” In the immediate future, in addition to an office in mainland China, the division is working on opening a number of business units in the strategically important locations of India, Singapore and Australia.
