Chinese Rule Has Proved Profitable for Hong Kong’s British Conglomerates – Donald Greenlees
The International Herald Tribune takes a look at the fate of the British conglomerates that decided to stay in Hong Kong after the handover to Chinese rule ten years ago:
Swire Group, which opened its first office here in 1870, might have had little choice but to hope for the best. Many of its assets, like the international airline of Hong Kong, Cathay Pacific, and swaths of prime real estate, could not be easily sold or moved. Still, at a time when many were predicting Hong Kong’s demise, Swire’s assessment of how Beijing would behave proved astute.
Meanwhile, its storied British rival, Jardine Matheson Group, took another route, confident it had found a way to hedge the risk of the Hong Kong handover. [Full text]
(Photo: The old Taikoo dockyards and sugar refinery on Hong Kong Island, before the Swire conversion to a housing complex, via IHT)
