China is knocking on Southeast Asia’s door, and Hong Kong’s trade council is offering to help open it

Projects in Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines are increasingly seeking capital via Hong Kong, city’s trade development body
Some have been ‘neglected’ by potential investors as a result of the coronavirus pandemic

China trade

Cheryl Heng

Published: 2:30pm, 29 Aug 2021

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Positioning Hong Kong as a dealmaking hub and capitalising on a surge of interest from mainland Chinese investors and Southeast Asian companies could deliver a boost to the city’s professional services industry, according to the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC).

Since 2019, the HKTDC has accelerated its efforts to facilitate deals, organising about 3,000 “matchmaking” meetings in the past two years.

“In our trade events, we ask our overseas stakeholders to bring along their projects. And we match them with investors from Hong Kong or China,” said Patrick Lau, HKTDC’s deputy executive director. “At the minimum, the benefit to Hong Kong is that we can provide the professional services attached to the deals, [benefiting] lawyers, accountants and consultants.”

Stakeholders range from start-ups to established companies that are seeking partners or investors. At present, the council has 60 active discussions ongoing, with a total of 10 completed since 2019.

The biggest interest is coming from companies based in Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines that are seeking investment.

“We see even more projects coming to us, especially those outside of China as they are not getting the attention that they would have got prior to the pandemic,” said Lau.

“Some good projects are being neglected because of the pandemic, because investors are more cautious. These are the projects we want to let the investment community know are available.”

Strong interest from mainland Chinese investors keeps the dealmaking momentum strong too.

“Mainland enterprises are actively seeking us out, including local commerce departments who [want to] find relevant enterprises interested in coming out to partner with us for appropriate targets abroad,” Lau said.

Hong Kong’s role as a facilitator could in turn invigorate its professional services industry, which already makes up more than a 10th of the city’s gross domestic product – HK$324.8 million in 2019.

Most projects belong to the technology and infrastructure space. For instance, the HKTDC matched Hong Kong-based service providers and Chinese investors with Indonesian partners for the country’s drive to relocate capital to the province of East Kalimantan.

In the pipeline is a similar project for Egypt’s new capital city, with further details expected to emerge at the upcoming Belt and Road Summit on September 1.

Hong Kong companies too have benefited from successful matchmaking. Data centre provider OneAsia Network’s expansion into Thailand has gained from the introduction of local partners. Its first data centre outside Hong Kong and China is scheduled to open by the end of 2022.

In 2016, Hong Kong start-up Insight Robotics was introduced to Thailand-listed conglomerate Loxley at one of HKTDC’s trade events. An agreement was eventually signed making Loxley the sole agent in Thailand, deploying the robotics firm’s wildfire detection system.

Founded in 1939, Loxley has business units in energy transmission, network solutions, trading, information technology and services.

Loxley CEO Suroj Lamsam said: “We play the part of a local partner, we have the connections and insight in terms of where these robots can be used, while Insight Robotics provides the technology.”

Both firms are in talks for another collaboration, where a Loxley subsidiary in the drone business could tap the Hong Kong firm’s building inspection technology to power its drones to detect cracks in a structure.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Hong Kong gains from deal-making role in SE Asia