You are a part of that optimistic crowd about the reopening.
You think the rest of the world doesn't quite get the significance really.
And how important this is going to be. What's your first take off?
First of all, good morning, Steve. Thank you for being with us today.
I'll been conference. It's time we are doing that.
That was absent last year because of the comfort measures.
Now we are back. We have 400 people at risk children
here. Yes, I am in the camp of frequent being
constructive about the impact of reopening of China and Hong Kong to the
rest of the world. I think one reason why I think the world
we may be a bit underestimated. The impact is because of lack of travel.
Remember Hong Kong, we only completed we were to open on the twenty ninth of
December on China only about a week or so ago.
So therefore, how many people really would factor China off Hong Kong for
that matter? And because we have a lot people living
in China, we have a lot of colleagues traveling to China all the time.
We can hear from them the direct impact of the real penny and what happened in
coral call cycle and the impact on people and people's attitude to us.
And that give me a lot of confidence because it happened so quickly and a lot
of the regulatory unwinding u turns. And then just Covid 0 dismantling it
happened really fast. What are your clients coming to you and
saying right now where they want to park their money or put their money?
Well, first of all, I think they are very encouraged by how short inflation
and recovery cycle has been. Some of my corporate cries told us that
by the end of last year, the whole company, 80, 90 percent of the stuff got
it. And then by the first two I first or
second week of January, the old mostly cover and came back to work.
And that's important and encouraged by that kind of observation.
They are actually shrewd, bullish about China's economy and all the beneficiary
of of of companies which could be Chinese, could be Hong Kong for the US,
could be Singapore and Taiwan, which could benefit from that trend.
And yes, I think there's a tendency of look, let's go look what opportunity we
have outside China these last three years to look at onshore China.
So I think from offshore our financial instrument perspective, that's a lot.
The amount of that will give me a sense of tangible evidence that the reopening
is going to benefit your line of business.
Can you give me an indication of what kind of assets under management growth
you see for 2023? And I'm not necessarily talking about
asset increase in valuation through the markets or whatever.
We're talking about actual new clients, new money being put in by the EU is
always a function about asset value and also new money coming in.
I think my best guesstimate is the industry over to speak to my peers as
well. I mean, everybody is looking at least 20
percent or so. I don't know whether it was a under
estimate, but the trend is definitely here positive when it comes to actual
activities. It's really only about a week or two and
China really opened up. I would tell you that for my colleagues.
On Sony ATV, one of my peers in their banks, I mean, all of them are planning
to send people back to China to meet with the clients to contact or after
Chinese New Year. So I think a massive explosion of to
wage fast transport. So I try to look at this conference, for
example. I think that we're today we have 60
clients traveling from China, from Singapore, Indonesia, back to Hong Kong.
And that's only after Hong Kong has been open for like two weeks.
It sounds like you're going to need a lot of private bankers.
What's hiring plans like putting. We.
Because we focus on ultra high net worth clients.
For us, it's always about the quality. I think the reality is that demand is
supply is very limited. So both Singapore and Hong Kong, for
that matter, in the onshore locations, if they are willing to come to Hong
Kong, Singapore, the world will welcome. So we have a very positive and
progressive fund to hire them. But we focus on quality.
You have a number you can kind of give me a kind of roughly you know, three
years ago you talked you gave me numbers between 30 to 35 new private bankers are
going to hire in Hong Kong and Singapore, which are two main focus.
Can you give an indication of how much that demand is going to be?
Well, look, I think if you look at Singapore plus Hong Kong, I would say
that when it comes experience, Ms. If I could get 20 by the end of this
year, I think I've done exceptionally good job.
I'll tell you also that the one of my key underperformance of my job over the
last few years feel free is that I always underperform.
I always are never high enough. People say you set the bar low in the
year exceeded. Right.
I tried to.