Standard Chartered to Hire 500 for Hong Kong Wealth Management

"Standard Chartered to Hire 500 for Hong Kong Wealth Management | AboutHK.Com - More Information About HK"

Bloomberg

Standard Chartered Plc plans to hire 500 employees this year for its wealth management business in Hong Kong.

The bulk of the new hires will be “frontline” staff, Standard Chartered spokeswoman Chamila Hewapathirana said in an e-mailed response to questions today. Hong Kong’s Oriental Daily reported the hiring plans today, citing Cindy Fu, general manager of the bank’s wealth management unit in Hong Kong.

Standard Chartered and HSBC Holdings Plc are among firms adding private bankers in Hong Kong as banks position themselves for an expected increase in wealth in Asia. HSBC, which moved its chief executive officer to Hong Kong this month, said in August it planned to hire at least 100 sales staff for its wealth management unit in the city.

Unemployment in Hong Kong fell to an 11-month low of 4.9 percent in the three months to Dec. 31, according to a Jan. 19 government statement. Banks in the city, which slashed jobs during the global financial crisis, began adding positions last year as equity markets revived.


--Editor: Philip Lagerkranser

To contact the reporter on this story: Joyce Koh in Hong Kong at +852-2977-6147 or jkoh38@bloomberg.net This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Philip Lagerkranser at +852-2977-6626 or lagerkranser@bloomberg.net

Hong Kong stocks at 5-mth low

"Hong Kong stocks at 5-mth low | AboutHK.Com - More Information About HK"

Reuters

Hong Kong shares slipped to a five-month closing low on Monday, falling for a third consecutive session on mounting concerns that the euro zone's debt problems will hamper the global economic recovery.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index .HSI closed down 0.58 percent or 114.19 points at 19,550.89. The China Enterprises Index of top locally listed mainland Chinese stocks closed down 1.28 percent at 10,989.19.

Market turnover fell to HK$59.63 billion ($7.67 billion), its lowest level since Jan. 4, from Friday's HK$77.5 billion.

"The situation now has reversed. We are swinging back to fear, compared to previously, when we were on the greed side," said Ben Kwong, chief operating officer at KGI Asia.

"Overall market sentiment remains cautious. The situation in the overseas markets remains unclear and European financial instability is a concern," he said, predicting that the index could test 19,000 in the near term.

Funds that had been borrowing U.S. dollars at low interest rates to invest in higher-risk Asian stocks - known as carry trades - were unwinding their positions on the back of the strengthening U.S. dollar, now seen as a safe haven in the current market turmoil, dealers said.

"The market will perform weakly in coming weeks because of the European debt situation," said Steven Lam, vice-president at Karl-Thomson Securities. "The Hong Kong market is highly linked to the volatility of the U.S. dollar and if the U.S. dollar continues to strengthen, carry trades will slow. Investor sentiment is weak."

Chinese property developer China Resources Land (1109.HK) fell 0.96 percent, erasing its earlier 2.87 percent gain in early trade on news the company will join Hong Kong's benchmark blue-chip Hang Seng Index (HSI) .HSI on March 8, Hong Kong's stock index compiler said on Friday after its quarterly review. [ID:nTOE61409N]

China State Construction (3311.HK) fell 2.66 percent after it said it would team up with two investors for a HK$400 million ($51.5 million) bond subscription, of which it would subscribe for half. The move will help the expansion of its construction business and construction-related investments in China.

Shares of high-end fashion group Joyce Boutique (0647.HK) fell 13.33 percent after it said Allied Wisdom International would take the company private and buy all outstanding shares it did not already own in Joyce at a discount of HK$0.20 each, for HK$88 million.

SHANGHAI EDGES DOWN

China's key stock index edged down 0.14 percent in shrinking turnover, with the banking and property sectors soft as bank lending curbs and the outlook for more new share supplies weighed on the market.

The Shanghai Composite Index .SSEC ended at 2,935.174 points, extending the previous week's 1.7 percent loss, the third weekly fall in a row.

Gaining Shanghai A shares outnumbered losers by 489 to 378, while turnover slipped to a four-month low of 73 billion yuan ($11 billion) from Friday's 110 billion yuan.

Activity is expected to thin out in the run-up to the one-week holiday for the Lunar New Year, which begins on Feb. 14.

"Trade turned light and narrowly range-bound because of the holiday factor and investors are wary given uncertainty about January economic data (due on Thursday) and the share supply outlook," said Wen Lijun, analyst at Nanjing Securities.

Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (601398.SS), the world's biggest bank by market capital, slipped 0.41 percent while the Shanghai property sub-index .SSEP dropped 0.48 percent to 4,010.197 points.

ICBC said at its 2010 working meeting that it would stop offering more loans to property developers found hoarding land and may even call back loans, the Financial News reported on Monday. The bank also said it would keep a reasonable rate of credit growth this year and seek to reduce credit risks.

The market has been weighed down by worries about credit tightening and heavy supplies of new shares, fuelled by steady approvals of new initial public offerings.

Four new stocks will list on Tuesday including China First Heavy Industries (601106.SS), while five companies are taking subscriptions on Monday and Tuesday, including mid-sized Chinese brokerage Huatai Securities Co, which plans to raise as much as 17.26 billion yuan in China's biggest initial public offering this year. [ID:nTOE61601G]

"The pace of new share supplies is very fast," said Qian Xiangjing, senior analyst at CITIC-Kington Securities in Hangzhou, although he expected the index to hold within a 2,900 to 3,000 point range until next week's holiday.

Brokerage shares outperformed, with CITIC Securities (600030.SS) gaining 2.05 percent, in reaction to the relatively high valuation for Huatai's price setting.

FedEx’s Home Airport Widens Cargo Gap Over Hong Kong

"FedEx’s Home Airport Widens Cargo Gap Over Hong Kong | AboutHK.Com - More Information About HK"

Bloomberg

FedEx Corp.’s home airport in Memphis, Tennessee, remained the world’s busiest for cargo for the 18th straight year as the gap with Hong Kong widened because of a drop in shipments from Asia during the global recession.

Memphis International Airport handled 3.698 million metric tons of freight in 2009, a gain of 0.04 percent from 2008, according to airport data, while Hong Kong International Airport said cargo traffic fell 7.7 percent to 3.35 million metric tons.

The results faded a challenge from Hong Kong, which consultant Air Cargo Management Group had predicted might surpass Memphis in freight volume in 2008 before the recession weighed on global demand. Memphis’s 3.696 million metric tons that year kept it ahead of Hong Kong’s 3.63 million metric tons.

“Toward the end of the year, we definitely saw some sequential growth taking place, and things are on an upward slope,” said Robert Dahl, a consultant at Air Cargo Management in Seattle. “The U.S. market has also done better than Asia in recent months, so that’s helping FedEx and Memphis.”

FedEx, the world’s largest air-freight shipper, said in December that volume in its express unit slid 1 percent for the first fiscal quarter, the best result in five quarters.

The company added some volume when Deutsche Post AG’s DHL unit halted its U.S. domestic operations in late 2008 and early 2009, Dahl said. Air Cargo Management estimates DHL’s U.S. volume was split about equally between FedEx and United Parcel Service Inc.

Biggest Air Hub

FedEx has its biggest hub for air packages in its hometown of Memphis, where it accounts for more than 95 percent of the airport’s cargo volume.

Memphis has been the world’s busiest cargo airport since 1992, when Airports Council International began keeping statistics. That group won’t certify last year’s freight results until later in 2010.

“In 2009, FedEx thinned flights to some of their regional hubs and flowed them through Memphis, so our numbers are correspondingly higher,” Janice Young, an airport spokeswoman, said in an e-mail message. “Overall, FedEx did a bit better than the other airlines by better management of their flow.”

As the U.S. economy continues to strengthen, Memphis expects a volume increase again this year, she said.

Hong Kong’s cargo traffic plunged in each of the first three quarters of last year as U.S. and European consumers pared spending on Asian-made goods amid the recession and rising job concerns. Throughput surged 16 percent in the fourth quarter as retailers rushed to replenish inventories for the holiday shopping season.

“Business is gradually flowing back,” said Cathy Cheung, a spokeswoman for Airport Authority Hong Kong. “In light of signs of improvement in the global economy and continued strong growth on the Mainland, we expect growth to return in 2010.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Mary Jane Credeur in Atlanta at mcredeur@bloomberg.net

Hong Kong company buys Cascade Pulp

"Hong Kong company buys Cascade Pulp | AboutHK.Com - More Information About HK"

International Grand Investment Corp. has purchased Cascade Pacific Pulp in Halsey.

Terms were not disclosed.

Cascade’s 166 employees will continue working at the company, which will continue to operate as Cascade Pacific Pulp. Wayne Henneck will remain president.

Cascade Pacific Pulp, LLC, is a specialty kraft pulp mill that produces more than 180,000 tons of bleached and unbleached pulp per year for use in various paper products and building materials. The pulp is shipped to customers across the United States and Asia.

It purchased the Halsey pulp mill from Pope & Talbot after Pope declared bankruptcy in 2008.

International Grand Investment is a Delaware corporation whose Hong Kong-based owner’s activities include pulp sales and marketing.

Hong Kong Protesters Becoming More Assertive

"Hong Kong Protesters Becoming More Assertive | AboutHK.Com - More Information About HK"

Dave DeForest

Hong Kong residents unhappy with the slow pace of democratic reform and the territory’s economic situation have recently become more assertive in their protests against the government.

Young demonstrators have lately been uncharacteristically confrontational in their opposition to controversial government plans such as a high-speed rail line to Shenzhen and Guangzhou backed by the Hong Kong legislature. A number of demonstrators have been arrested following clashes with police.

Protesters Want Action

“These are young people, they haven’t been involved before,” explains Douglas Paal, director of the Asia program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “This new group are people who are ‘charged up’ with Twitter and Facebook and other kinds of communications that are very brief and ‘punchy.’ They’re looking for quick action, they are not patient,” he said.

A former British territory, Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997 with the promise that it would maintain a measure of independence and civil liberties. Democracy activists say democratic reform is coming too slowly.

Only half of Hong Kong’s legislature is elected. The rest of the seats are appointed by various interest groups, most of whom are backed by Beijing.

Lawmakers Resign

A group of five lawmakers recently resigned, hoping the election to fill their seats would rally supporters of democracy. But another group of pro-Beijing legislators walked out of the session, forcing the meeting to adjourn before the five could give their farewell speeches.

“The likely outcome will be that these people will get re-elected and they will claim that they have had a referendum on democracy, and the people who think democracy should not move so fast…will say there is no referendum at all, you’ve not tested anything, and they will reject it,” he said.

Paal said what the move will accomplish is raising the level of discussion about democracy in Hong Kong. But, he is not sure that it will move the issue forward. “I think it will probably perpetuate the differences that exist in Hong Kong before this incident erupted,” he said.

Paal does not think the demonstrations or controversy over the legislative bi-elections will paralyze the government or bring a strong reaction from Beijing.

Hong Kong Casino Shares Jump as Macau’s Gaming Revenue Surges

"Hong Kong Casino Shares Jump as Macau’s Gaming Revenue Surges | AboutHK.Com - More Information About HK"

Bloomberg

Melco International Development Ltd., controlled by billionaire Stanley Ho’s son, Lawrence, led Hong Kong-listed casino operators higher after a report said gaming revenue in the world’s biggest gambling hub hit a monthly record in January.

Melco International advanced as much as 7.3 percent while Sands China Ltd., billionaire Sheldon Adelson’s Macau casino operator, rose as much as 5.2 percent. Wynn Macau Ltd., the local unit of Wynn Resorts Ltd., climbed 3.8 percent to HK$9.77, as of 10:53 a.m. local time.

Casino revenue in Macau increased almost 65 percent to a monthly record of 14 billion patacas ($1.75 billion) in January from a year ago, beating the 12.6 billion patacas recorded for October 2009, according to Portuguese news agency Lusa. A new daily record of more than 800 million patacas was also reached in January, Lusa said, citing data from the casino operators. Macau is the only place in China where casinos are legal.

Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd., part owned by Permira Advisers LLP, gained 2.7 percent to HK$3.04. SJM Holdings Ltd., Stanley Ho’s casino holding company, advanced 5 percent to HK$4.02.


--Editors: Nick Gentle, Nicolas Johnson.

To contact the reporter on this story: Emily Chan in Hong Kong at +852-2977-6026 or

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Frank Longid at +852-2977-6643 or flongid@bloomberg.net

Singapore Home Prices to Lag Behind Hong Kong on Building Boom

"Singapore Home Prices to Lag Behind Hong Kong on Building Boom | AboutHK.Com - More Information About HK"

Bloomberg

A bungalow on Singapore’s Ocean Drive, a stretch of luxury homes lined with Bentleys and Ferraris, sold for a record S$30 million ($21 million) in October. In Hong Kong, a duplex a third the size went for almost three times as much the same month.

Singapore’s luxury-home prices won’t match Hong Kong’s because an increase in building ahead of two casino projects in the city-state will see nine times the number of new apartments going up over the next three years than in Hong Kong, according to real estate broker Savills Plc. Singapore’s high-end home prices rose 4 percent in 2009, while Chinese buyers fueled a 45 percent jump in Hong Kong, Savills said.

“Hong Kong has some unique factors which drive the super luxury market, particularly mainland buyers who have been very aggressive,” said Simon Smith, Savills’s Hong Kong-based head of research and consulting. “We will always see some dramatic prices in Hong Kong you wouldn’t necessarily see in Singapore.”

Luxury property prices in Singapore are about 19 percent below their 2007 peak, according to a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. report published Jan. 13. They may rise about 15 percent this year, though still remain 7 percent below their highs by the end of 2010, Goldman said. Hong Kong luxury prices, which have surpassed their mid-2008 peak, will rise 15 percent in the next six months, Colliers International Ltd. forecast in January.

Holiday Resorts

Two resorts are being built in Singapore -- the city-state across the Johor Strait from Malaysia -- with casinos, hotels, restaurants and attractions that the government hopes will help lure 17 million visitors and triple annual tourism revenue to S$30 billion by 2015.

Genting Singapore Plc unit Resorts World Sentosa opened part of its $4.5 billion project on southern Sentosa island last month, while Las Vegas Sands Corp. said it may open the Marina Bay Sands, in downtown, in April after construction delays.

To make the economy less dependent on electronics manufacturing, the Singapore government in April 2005 overturned a ban on casinos that had been in place since independence in 1965. Resorts World and Marina Bay are the only two casino developments approved and the government has said there will be only two gaming operators for 10 years.

“The integrated resort is a stale story by now,” Tay Huey Ying, a Singapore-based director of research and consulting at Colliers, said at a property seminar on Jan. 13. “I do not foresee a great impact. We will need another growth story to bring the foreigners back to Singapore.”

Casinos

In contrast, the number of casinos in Macau, the world’s biggest casino hub and the only Chinese city where gambling is legal, more than doubled to 33 in 2009 from 2002, when Stanley Ho’s casino monopoly ended. Residential prices will increase as much as 15 percent in the city this year, according to a Savills report on Macau published on Jan. 27.

Sands China Ltd., the Macau unit of Las Vegas Sands, will open most of its stalled resort in Macau by December 2011, adding 300,000 square feet (27,871 square meters) of gaming space to the 849,000 square feet it already has, the company said.

More than 130 apartments around Singapore’s Marina Bay and 900 apartments at Sentosa Cove have yet to be put on sale. City Developments Ltd., Singapore’s second-biggest property developer, and YTL Corp., Malaysia’s biggest builder, are among those preparing to put more homes on the market this year.

Prime Locations

About 11,000 condominiums and apartments in the prime districts, or two-fifths of the total supply in Singapore, will come onto the market over the next three years, according to Savills. This compares with 1,260 luxury homes in Hong Kong over the same period.

“In Singapore, we’re going to see slightly elevated levels of supply in 2011 and 2012, which would moderate price growth,” said Savills’s Smith.

Henderson Land Development Co., the Hong Kong-based builder controlled by billionaire Lee Shau-kee, in October sold a 6,158 square-foot duplex apartment in the city for a world record price of HK$88,000 ($11,354) per square foot in a transaction worth HK$439 million. Luxury homes in Hong Kong are defined as those costing at least HK$10 million or bigger than 1,000 square feet.

The 17,115 square-foot bungalow sold on Sentosa island fetched S$1,753 a square foot. Prices reached as high as S$5,262 per square foot in 2007, a peak in Singapore’s property market. Singapore luxury homes are defined by Savills as those with an average price of between S$1,900 and S$2,000 a square foot in the city-state’s prime districts.

Property Bubble?

Surging prices have raised concerns of a property market bubble in Hong Kong. The government tightened down-payment requirements for luxury homes for the first time since 1991 and suspended mortgage insurance for rental properties in October.

Singapore’s government said in September it will push for more sites to be sold and will bar interest-only mortgages for uncompleted housing projects. Still, authorities aren’t likely to clamp down too much on the luxury end of the market, said Donald Han, the Singapore-based managing director of Cushman & Wakefield, a real-estate advisory company.

“The high-end market is less of a concern, it’s more of a private playground for the rich,” Han said.

Foreigners can buy condominiums and apartments in Singapore, though Sentosa Cove is the only place where they are allowed to own houses.

Rolls Royce

Wealthy Malaysians and Indonesians have been the main buyers of luxury properties in the city-state. Now rich buyers from Russia, Norway, Sweden and Austria are showing interest in the high end of the market, as well as Asian celebrities and professional golfers, said Kemmy Tan, director of international real estate at YTL Singapore Pte, which is developing 13 villas at Sentosa Cove. Tan wouldn’t give any names.

To help sell the villas, Tan has made sure the elevator to the basement car park of each villa is big enough to fit a Rolls Royce Phantom, which measures 5.6 meters (18.4 feet) long.

“Most of the cars here are Bentleys, Lamborghinis and Ferraris,” said Jason Yeo, general manager at site operator Sentosa Cove Resort Management. “Of course, you have the normal cars like Mercedes and BMWs too.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Joyce Koh in Singapore at jkoh38@bloomberg.net