Another option is being offered by SGS-Thomson Microelectronics Inc. The company, jointly controlled by France's state-owned Thomson SA and Italian state-owned Istituto per la Ricostruzione ...Industriale, or IRI, is seeking long-range strategic links with leading Asian makers by preaching technological independence from Japanese chip makers as a matter of economic survival. Meanwhile, SGS-Thomson is serving its own interests. With the huge Japanese chip market still largely closed, and now flat after a decade of dynamic growth, the world's 15th-biggest chip maker is looking to the rest of Asia to help lift its global market share to 5% from its current 3.5%. SGS-Thomson's top executives last month visited South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong, trying to woo Japan's regional chip customers by playing on fears of a sudden cutoff in supply. "On the equipment side, Asians are competing with Japanese products," says Jean Philip Dauvin, SGS-Thomson's vice president for market analysis. "This will be a very strong fight in the next couple of years. More and more, market share will depend on availability of independent semiconductor sources. You can't win a war buying ammunition from the enemy."
U.S. businessmen in Hong Kong are optimistic that Washington will renew China's most-favored-nation trading benefits, despite a marked deterioration of sympathy for the British colony in Congress. "I ...think it's going to be very close," says William Overholt, an executive director of Bankers Trust Co. in Hong Kong, who has tesified before Congress in favor of MFN renewal. "But if I had to bet, I'd bet that it will be passed."
U.S. businessmen in Hong Kong are optimistic that Washington will renew China's most-favored-nation trading benefits, despite a marked deterioration of sympathy for the British colony in Congress. ...The American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong has sent several delegations to Beijing and Washington over the past year, trying to spur the Chinese to respect intellectual-property rights and remove trade barriers, and seeking to convince China's critics in Congress that increased trade is the best way to promote human rights.
In a surprising break from its strategy of holding onto core assets in the Central district, Hongkong Land Holdings Ltd. said it sold a recently completed office tower to a group of investors for ...HK$3.8 billion (US$490 million). "This is just the beginning," said Lawrence Ang, a property analyst at SBCI Finance Asia Ltd., a unit of Swiss Bank Corp. "Big developers need to utilize their cash. They'll take this as a sign that Hongkong Land is willing to sell anything." He predicted that Hongkong Land will receive a flood of offers from cash-rich Hong Kong developers in weeks to come. Hongkong Land said the buyer of Nine Queens Road Central was Innsbruck Co., a consortium of Hong Kong interests, which it declined to identify. But speculation was rife that investors from mainland China led the consortium. Before the market opened on Wednesday, trading in Hongkong Macau (Holdings) Ltd., China Investments Ltd. and Wideside Ltd. was suspended along with Hongkong Land shares.
Alain Dominique Perrin, president of Cartier International, says that "it's crazy" for companies such as Louis Vuitton Malletier and Alfred Dunhill Ltd. to increasingly rely on Asian sales. ..."Culturally, {Asia} is not a luxury market," he says. "It's only a consumer market. Luxury was born in Europe. For Europeans, it's natural to live with luxury. We were born with it. Here it's just a status symbol." Asia's share of world-wide consumption of luxury goods has risen sharply since the industry flowered in the 1970s. For leather-goods maker Louis Vuitton, a unit of France's LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, Asian-Pacific sales accounted for two-thirds of global revenue last year. For Dunhill, a U.K.-based maker of pricey menswear, leather goods and watches, Asian-Pacific sales reached 46% of the world-wide total in 1990, more than double regional sales a decade ago. Dunhill's revenue was about the same level last year, Mr. Dunnett says; luxury-goods sales generally were flat in most markets in 1991 amid the decline in consumer confidence following the Gulf War. Sales seem to be rebounding this year.
The government awarded the first major construction contract of the British colony's new airport project to an Anglo-Japanese consortium, despite another, far lower bid, sparking renewed cries of ...favoritism. On Thursday, the government chose a consortium led by Trafalgar House PLC and Costain Civil Engineering Ltd. of Britain and Mitsui Co. of Japan. to build the 1.3-kilometer Tsing Ma bridge, which will be the world's second-longest suspension bridge. The group's bid of about US$922 million was more than 50% higher than that of a consortium led by Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co. of South Korea, which bid US$608 million. Defending its decision, the government stressed the tight time frame of the project. Construction on the bridge must begin within four weeks and continue without serious interruption for five years if the airport is to open before China regains sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997. Hyundai was "the least acceptable of all the tenderers when timely completion of the contract was taken into account," Mr. Yeung said. The whole airport project, including infrastructure, is expected to cost HK$112 billion (US$14.46 billion).
Alain Dominique Perrin, president of Cartier International, says that "it's crazy" for companies such as Louis Vuitton Malletier and Alfred Dunhill Ltd. to increasingly rely on Asian sales. ..."Culturally, Asia is not a luxury market," he says. "It's only a consumer market. Luxury was born in Europe. For Europeans, it's natural to live with luxury. We were born with it. Here it's just a status symbol." Asia's share of world-wide consumption of luxury goods has risen sharply since the industry flowered in the 1970s. For leather-goods maker Louis Vuitton, a unit of France's LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton S.A., Asian-Pacific sales accounted for two-thirds of global revenue last year. For Dunhill, a U.K.-based maker of pricey menswear, leather goods and watches, Asian-Pacific sales reached 46% of the world-wide total in 1990, more than double regional sales a decade ago. Dunhill's revenue was about the same level last year, Mr. Dunnett says; luxury-goods sales generally were flat in most markets in 1991 amid the decline in consumer confidence following the Gulf War. Sales seem to be rebounding this year.
Alain Dominique Perrin, president of Cartier International, says that "it's crazy" for companies such as Louis Vuitton Malletier and Alfred Dunhill Ltd. to increasingly rely on Asian sales. ..."Culturally, (Asia) is not a luxury market," Mr. Perrin explains. "It's only a consumer market. Luxury was born in Europe. For Europeans, it's natural to live with luxury. We were born with it. Here it's just a status symbol." Asia's share of world-wide consumption of luxury goods has risen dramatically since the industry flowered in the 1970s. For leather-goods maker Louis Vuitton, a unit of France's LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Asian-Pacific sales accounted for two-thirds of global revenue last year. For Dunhill, a U.K.-based maker of pricey menswear, leather goods and watches, Asian-Pacific sales reached 46% of the world-wide total in 1990, more than double regional sales a decade ago. Dunhill's revenue was about the same level last year, Mr. Dunnett says, although luxurygoods sales generally were flat in most markets in 1991 amid the decline in consumer confidence following the Persian Gulf war. Sales seem to be rebounding this year.
Residential property prices jumped 80% last year in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, according to a report by consultants Brooke Hillier Parker. The surge in prices there, and similar growth ...nearby, confirms that China's Pearl River Delta is rapidly becoming a natural extension of Hong Kong's booming property market. In 1991, the colony itself witnessed a 60% spike in property prices. The Brooke Hillier report, based largely on Shenzhen government statistics, focused on the links between that rise and the jump in prices in Shenzhen and Zhuhai, a Special Economic Zone west of Hong Kong. While the market for industrial property in Shenzhen and elsewhere in Guangdong province has matured gradually with more than a decade of foreign investment, the residential property market has only recently come alive. In the past 18 months, large tracts of land have been snapped up by major Hong Kong developers such as Cheung Kong Holdings Ltd., New World Development Co. and Henderson Land Development Co. The buying was prompted by the emergence of clearer property rights and infrastructure projects that promise stronger ties and easier commerce between the colony and southern China.
To be sure, problems at home are catching up with agencies in the Asian-Pacific region, threatening staff cuts and constraining growth at a time when opportunities abound. In addition, the rising ...sophistication of Asian companies and consumers is making agencies work harder to woo local accounts and find more ways to persuade increasingly choosy buyers. Nevertheless, prospects remain fairly rosy. Most of the region's markets have boomed as consistent economic expansion has helped small companies gain national status and national companies seek regional and global growth. Local companies now make up 70% of a typical agency's revenues, while billings from multinational clients, who brought agencies to the region in the first place, have slipped to 30%. Healthy economies also have created an emerging middle class that wants access to the good life portrayed on television. That has pushed multinational companies beyond regionally oriented media directly into local markets and allowed global agencies to capitalize on rising consumption of affordable luxury goods such as cigarettes and alcohol. Foreign agencies are enjoying a similar bonanza in Indonesia. Deregulation of the television industry spurred 60% growth in ad spending in 1991, according to Media, and a recent satellite launch promises further expansion this year. Bangkok Land Co.'s flurry of ads for middle-class condominiums fueled 26% growth in billings in Thailand last year. Singapore's broadcasting expansion promises improvement on last year's 15% growth led by department stores. Spending in the Hong Kong industry grew 14% last year despite a December 1990 ban on TV cigarette advertising.
