New partnership offers triple win

China’s Dual Circulation Strategy, laid down in the 14th Five-Year Plan, aims to develop offshore trade and investment in parallel with the country’s domestic economy. The strategy presents a golden opportunity for Hong Kong, which has long served as one of China’s gateways to the world. At the same time, the city serves as a perfect platform for mainland investment firms, giving easy access to both the mainland and the world at large.

The Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) and Huatai International Financial Holdings Company Limited recently unveiled a one-year strategic partnership to jointly promote the Dual Circulation Strategy and provide benefits on various levels.

Triple win

The two parties aim to achieve three key objectives through the partnership: 1) To complement the Dual Circulation Strategy by helping enterprises from Mainland China go global, while attracting foreign investment into the domestic market, such as the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), thereby achieving a triple-win outcome for project owners, investors and Hong Kong’s service providers and advisers; 2) Reinforce and promote Hong Kong as an effective platform for mainland enterprises to invest overseas; and 3) Create strong synergy through the integration of the two parties’ business platforms and investor and resource networks.

Dr Patrick Lau, HKTDC Deputy Executive Director, said: “Hong Kong is not only a trading hub, but also an international investment hub. Our success in deal-making showcases the best of Hong Kong’s ecosystem by providing all-round professional and finance services to Mainland China and the Asia region, facilitating part of the country’s objectives of the Dual Circulation Strategy.

Dr Lau said that Huatai Securities is one of the top securities houses in Mainland China, with Huatai International being its international business platform with financial expertise and capable teams in corporate finance.

“Therefore, it will be an ideal partner for the HKTDC to achieve our objectives. I believe Hong Kong’s dealmaker role is one way to make better use of Hong Kong’s advantages to help not only mainland enterprises, but also create opportunities for Hong Kong and international firms, investors and project owners under today’s complex international environment.”

Levin Wang, CEO of Huatai Financial Holdings (Hong Kong) Limited, said: “As a statutory body of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government with a global network, the HKTDC is an important conduit for Hong Kong’s services industry to demonstrate its strengths and capabilities to the world. Huatai International is an important platform of Huatai Securities to develop overseas business. As a leading securities house with advantages in fintech, we provide high-quality, innovative and competitive financial products and services to our global clients.

“We are delighted to join hands with the HKTDC to demonstrate the strength of Mainland Chinese financial institutions in the international capital market, with the help of the HKTDC’s wide networks, and contribute to consolidating Hong Kong’s status as a financial centre.”

GBA opportunities

To help enterprises seize opportunities in the GBA, which is one of China’s strategic national development initiatives, the HKTDC is preparing to host the SmartHK event to promote Hong Kong’s services sectors to mainland enterprises in Guangzhou, with Huatai as the GBA business matching and investment partner. A senior representative from Huatai will join other star speakers to examine the collaboration opportunities and challenges awaiting Hong Kong and other GBA cities in the areas of finance, transportation, trade, aviation and innovation and technology (I&T).

In addition to seminars, SmartHK will feature a service consulting area to provide business-matching services for Hong Kong’s professional service providers, research institutions and start-ups. This will help them connect with mainland enterprises in the GBA to promote Hong Kong’s financial, I&T and creative services and products.

Huatai will set up a booth at SmartHK to foster stronger ties with participating mainland enterprises and provide pragmatic advice and diversified solutions for investment sourcing, financing arrangements, asset and risk management and other business requirements. Additionally, Huatai will help companies leverage different financial strategies to allocate assets or raise capital in order to expand their presence in the GBA and other domestic and overseas markets.

Fintech leader

In the past five years, Huatai assets and revenue expanded 10-fold and nearly 30-fold respectively, while staff headcount doubled, making it the fastest-growing mainland securities firm in recent years.

As fintech expands into more application scenarios, Huatai has adhered to the group company's technology empowerment strategy and launched a one-stop global wealth management platform – the Zhangle Global app. Drawing on advanced technology, the app combines a brokerage service with wealth management and uses open architecture to empower local small and medium-sized securities firms, making Huatai a leader in fintech development in Hong Kong.

Huatai will also participate in HKTDC-organised business-matching activities that are organised periodically in the mainland for the benefit of Hong Kong’s services industry. These activities include financial services or cross-border investment missions, fundraising roundtables and “Hong Kong Team” missions. The aim is to provide practical advice and support to facilitate mainland enterprises’ internationalisation, fundraising and business-expansion needs.

Networking events

To date, the HKTDC has invited Huatai to join year-round deal-making and networking events, where Huatai explains to mainland enterprises the strengths of Hong Kong’s financial services, including its comprehensive range of financial products, deep pool of financial talent, free capital markets and simple tax system.

This enables mainland enterprises to better understand the benefits of using Hong Kong as a springboard for going global, including reducing overall costs, improving operational efficiency, capturing business opportunities in the international market and consolidating Hong Kong’s position as an ideal fundraising platform for mainland enterprises under the 14th Five-Year Plan.

These events include the Hong Kong-Hubei Virtual Fundraising Roundtable (main picture shows Hubei’s capital, Wuhan), organised by the HKTDC, which successfully organised 60 one-to-one business-matching sessions between 25 mainland enterprises and 10 Hong Kong professional services providers.

During the event, the HKTDC connected Huatai with mainland companies with fundraising needs from various sectors, including biotech, healthcare, new media, consumer staples and more. Huatai also held online matching meetings with several mainland enterprises and reached preliminary intent to cooperate.

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