Chinese investment banks and securities firms eyeing business from stock listings will replace multinational companies that are reducing their footprint, said Goodwin Gaw, chairman of the Hong Kong-based private equity firm that has about $36 billion in assets under management.
Gaw’s optimistic outlook on Hong Kong is rare in a city where office vacancies have surged to record levels, driven by a cutback in the investment-banking workforce and the shifting of major firms to rival financial hubs like Singapore.Hong Kong now accounts for about 10% of Gaw’s portfolio, while mainland China assets have dropped to about 25% of the total. Occupancy in Gaw’s office space in Hong Kong is still “pretty good,” ranging in percentages from the mid-80s to 90s, he said.
“West Coast offices like San Francisco or Seattle will probably be the sector I’m most interested to invest into now, because I think it’s oversold,” said Gaw, who expects companies there to push more workers to return to the office. “At the right time we’ll be selling,” he said, at the sidelines of the Forbes Global CEO Conference in Singapore Monday.