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Enoch Yiu

A new head took over the running of Citigroup's Hong Kong operations yesterday as the financial giant celebrated taking on a new name - Citi.

Sim Lim, a Malaysian Chinese, yesterday met the media for the first time officially after taking the helm from Chan Tze-ching as Hong Kong country officer. Mr Lim is also head of markets and banking for Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Mr Lim unveiled the bank's new global corporate advertising campaign under the Citi name, a change  announced in February.

'Hong Kong is one of the first markets to kick off Citi's global advertising campaign. The ads make strong use of Citi's new symbolic red arc, which serves as a visual metaphor for connecting human aspirations to realities,' he said.

Mr Lim has worked for Citi for 24 years, holding a variety of roles in treasury in various countries. He first joined as a management associate in Kuala Lumpur in 1983 and moved to the Tokyo office in 1987 where he  headed its corporate and consumer bank treasury division. In 1999, Mr Lim moved to New York to head treasury and corporate and investment banking in North America. He has been head of emerging markets sales and trading for Asia Pacific since June 2004.

Food is the key

It sounds like a dream job to combine your personal interests with your work. Betty Leong Sin-ling, the chief retail development manager of MTR Corp, our podcast and vidcast guest this week, seems to be one of the lucky ones.

'Of course I like shopping. If my memory does not fail me, I started shopping at three years old. My mother bought me a very nice pair of shoes and matching dress from the good old Lane Crawford in Central, situated  where Landmark now stands,' Ms Leong said.

'Depending on the mood and the season, I would say the range of my consumption can be very fluctuating. When I am away, in particular outside Hong Kong and in some of the best kept secret places including shops, flea markets and old street corner shops in Europe, I can buy virtually anything. But I actually don't buy much when I am working in Hong Kong.'

The passion that led Ms Leong to pay attention to big brands and shopping centres around the world may have made a dent in her bank account but it has also helped her to specialise in turning empty space into spectacular shopping areas.

Ms Leong, who has been in the property and retail marketing and development business for more than 14 years, helped the Airport Authority  to found the Hong Kong SkyMart at the airport.

Now at MTR, she is preparing for the end-of-year launch of Elements, MTR's flagship retail property at Kowloon Station. Elements, with  one million square feet, will be by far the largest mall of its kind in the city.

The key to success for a shopping mall, Ms Leong said, was simple - food.

'For any successful shopping centre, it must have a depth of catering for people to get together for drinks or meals. Families and friends like to get together to enjoy a meal and restaurants or bars are how to attract people to revisit a shopping centre  again,' she said.

Still bullish

Sunday's Hong Kong Exchanges Challenge Cup at Happy Valley ended up as a bull and bear fight.

Bear Macho won ahead of Bulldozer. Equity investors among the Happy Valley crowd concerned about the omens of a bear   beating a  bull could rest easy yesterday when the stock market showed it had lost none of its heat, rising through 21,000 for the first time.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing chairman Ronald Arculli, who presented the  prizes to the winning horse,  favours cufflinks that pair a bull and a bear, according to his friends.

Space camp

MassMutual Asia, the life insurance arm of the US MassMutual Finance Group, has started its annual sponsorship for the MassMutual Jr Space camp, a scheme started in 1999 under which it has supported sending 50 children to Huntsville, Alabama, to join summer holiday training with the space training group there.

The sponsorship includes paying for parents to accompany their children, transport costs and meals.

This year it will choose six children aged from 7 to 11.  It will receive applications until June 24. Applicants must submit something to show their creativity - such as written work, models or song compositions and pass other tests.



Lim helps celebrate Citi's new name