Chairman of Qianhai Heungkong Financial Holdings Group Sam Lau at the 8th Asian Leadership Conference

The 8th Asian Leadership Conference was held on July 3-4, 2017 at Walkerhill Hotel, Seoul, Korea, with over 130 speakers and 2,000 participants attending the event. Politicians, celebrities, entrepreneurs and economists such as former president of the United States Barak Obama, former prime minister of the United Kingdom David Cameron and honorary dean of the National School of Development at Peking University and former chief economist and senior vice president at the World Bank Justin Yifu Lin spoke at the conference. Chairman of Qianhai Heungkong Financial Holdings Group Sam Lau was invited to deliver a speech at the conference.

At the conference forum, Chairman Sam Lau began his speech with introducing the establishment of Qianhai Heungkong Financial Holdings Group and its current developments. Since its establishment in 2013, with an eye to serving the real economy and in support of the “One Belt and One Road” initiative, Qianhai Heungkong Financial Holdings Group has built a whole financial industry chain within less than four years covering real estate, securities and equity investment as well as M&A related financial products and made its presence in investing in emerging fields such as consumption upgrade, IMT and healthcare. So far the assets under management home and abroad by the investment arm of Qianhai Heungkong Financial Holdings Group have reached USD 3 billion.

Qianhai Heungkong Financial Holdings Group mainly engages in two divisions, namely supply chain finance and investment. With the size growing from USD 350 million in 2014 to USD 1.5 billion now, the supply chain finance division of Heungkong Finance has recorded a very positive growth. In the investment division of which the current size is USD 3 billion, operations include are equity investment and hedges in secondary markets.

In the interaction session, the facilitator Gabriel wileau, head of the Shanghai Office of the Financial Times, asked what advantage Qianhai Heungkong Financial Holdings Group has over traditional Chinese financial institutions. Sam said one important reason for Heungkong Finance’s advantage is the whole industry chain, which currently covers micro loan, finance lease and factoring and will extend to full licensing including brokerage and insurance in the future; and the investment process almost involves each of early, middle and late stages. With investment sectors closely correlating to and supporting each other, the whole industry chain model is more resilient and more vigilant against risks. Another important reason is that Another important reason is that Qianhai Heungkong Financial Holdings Group had a high starting point from the onset, had a high starting point from the onset, acting locally and thinking globally. In particular, it takes advantage of the investment and financing platforms in Shenzhen and Hong Kong to serve small and medium sized enterprises in China and facilitate the real economy. In 2016, Futec International was established to capitalize on the favorable financing environment and convenient financing conditions provided by the free port market Hong Kong for tackling financing difficulties encountered by domestic enterprises as well as providing foreign enterprises with access to Chinese market, and on the other hand, in response to the “One Belt and One Road” initiative, support domestic companies to go global, strengthen economic ties around the world and facilitate integration and peace of the world. In the opinion of Sam, focusing on serving domestic real economy is the fundamental reason why Qianhai Heungkong Financial Holdings Group can quickly receive market recognition and achieve fast development.

Sam also pointed out that in recent years, although China’s economy slowed down, its aggregate economic volume is growing. New opportunities for China mainly come from the growing middle class and new consumption upgrades. In his opinion, with increased income level, consumption demands will no longer focus on basic necessities of life like before, instead, people will pursue lives of higher quality, for example, healthy life will come a new demand. Health industry will have substantial business potentials and opportunities in China.

During the conference, Sam was also interviewed by a journalist from the ChosunIlbo, in which he said the success of Qianhai Heungkong Financial Holdings Group is mainly attributable to a good vision that it has, because the corporate values of its parent company Heungkong Group is “giving back to society through business excellence”. For a man as an entrepreneur, his purpose is more than just striving for himself, because his value is measured by the contribution made to the society. Therefore, in 2005, Heungkong Group established Heungkong Charitable Foundation, the first private charitable foundation in China, which, over the past decade, helped and supported more than two million disadvantaged people and made more than 200 donations, making an accumulative charitable spending of over RMB 1 billion. Sam Lau said he has two visions, one is to build Qianhai Heungkong Financial Holdings Group into a long-lasting enterprise, and the other is to make Heungkong Charitable Foundation a long-lasting foundation. By doing so, we can better reward the society and support more people in need of help.