 
LARGER
MULTIPLES: EXTRA 000'$ IN ASIA
Swee moved ten years ago to Hong Kong
from Singapore. I think we get along because Canadians and Singaporeans
are similar in their approach to celebrating East meet West. In
Canada we are able to retain our cultural identity without compromising being a
Canadian. I am proudly Chinese Canadian, able to maintain my
Chinese cultural heritage while defining myself individually as a Canadian.
Although not yet in senior management at
Pacific Century, she was the person who was getting things done. Her
cheery letter recently, "I have sold my house in Singapore and
Daniel [her husband] and I made a cool $ 2 million profit after 3 years.
We are going to throw that back into a new and bigger place in Singapore.
Thank heavens for great Daddies like mine. He really did a great job on
this deal for me and I hope Daniel will be generous with his
appreciation". In North America, this type of a capital gain would
be unheard of for working professionals. Yet in Asia, multiples in this
range are frequent. She's moved on to bridging the East meets West as
communications manager for Nike (Asia) and these days she's the Marketing
Manager for the South China Morning Post.
In Asia, a case of business as usual,
but with larger multiples and more '000's. By now even the novice dealer
will note that one just has to add a few 000's at the end of each unit when
dealing with Chinese. Status for Asians is reflected in big numbers and
things done generally in a big way. The concept of largesse is what the
westerner should be thinking of in their dealings with Chinese. The term
'billion' is used possibly more frequently because of the currency.
However, Chinese have a historical record of firsts.
In 1992 I was invited by the Chairman of
Golden Ocean Shipping to join at the launch 'of "The New Valor", his
newest ship at the Fukuoka shipyards with guest including Hong Kong's top
government administrator, Anson Chan and her Caltex executive husband Archie,
and Jeannie and Dick Perelman from Bermuda. When my host mentioned
launch, he didn't mention that it was a VLCC (very large cargo container) the
length of four foot ball fields! Representatives from Marubeni, Orix and
China's premier shipping companies COSCO were in attendance. Example yet
again of larger multiples in Asia. Businesses and politics in Asia
consistently compete yet join forces to achieve "Tallest-Biggest".
Thus unit sizes of billions, hundreds of millions etc. I learned long ago
in business that the only difference is the number of '000's in the
transaction. It takes just as much effort to do a big deal as a small
one. The only difference is the size of the stakes. I still
remember the launch of the VLCC for one of the guests arriving with 9 pieces of
luggage full of haute couture. Bigger stage; larger numbers. When I
was with the Pacific Century Group, we could entertain aboard Concordia,
Hong Kong's only 88 foot double cigarette power boat. I did hear
that they had to send a hydrofoil pilot overseas to train him how to operate
the boat since no one in Hong Kong has ever had ever owned or operated such a
powerful machine. One of Asia's legacies to my personal history was
learning to do business in larger multiples. - by Andrea
Eng
This article about the breakup of China's post office
also illustrates the point of "Larger Multiples" when dealing with
China.
Beijing will accelerate plans to
reorganize the State Post Bureau, which involve splitting off its banking
component to create the nation's fifth- biggest lender by deposits, the China
Banking Regulatory Commission said.
Vice chairman Cai Esheng urged policy banks such as
State Development Bank, China Export and Import Bank and Agricultural
Development Bank to expand lending to farmers to support Beijing's aim of
developing rural areas.
The regulator plans to form four supervisory
departments this year to overlook the policy-related banks, the postal
institution and asset management companies.
Under the reorganization approved by the Cabinet last
July, the new State Post Bureau will become a regulatory body while its
previous businesses, including mail services and the deposit and savings units,
will be split into five parts and transferred to a new company.
The new China Post Savings Bank will hold 1.23
trillion yuan (HK$1.19 trillion) of deposits - 10 percent of the country's
household savings - and continue to offer financial services through 36,000
outlets after the breakup of the postal bureau. - BLOOMBERG
27 March 2006
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