By Nick Lambe, Managing Director, Links International
Well it’s obviously all been about the Olympics these last 2 weeks and if you read the British press, the medal ‘rush’ that has started from team GB in the last few days is impressive! What was also impressive in very different ways were the Philippine diving squads’ efforts and also the Armenian weightlifter’s dislocated elbow…. ouch on both counts!
Hong Kong vs. Singapore – Hedge Funds fight it out……
Anyway, on to more business related news, the Hong Kong and Singapore financial services battle rages on with Bloomberg reporting that Singapore’s Hedge Funds have posted better returns than their Hong Kong counterparts, breaking a five-year trend of supremacy from Hong Kong. Naturally, with many Hong Kong funds being equities-focused, this would make sense with the equity market activity this year, but what does this mean for Hong Kong and its hedge funds in the future?
Has China’s love of cinema died, or are the films just not as good as last year?
There has been a reported 15% fall in cinema attendance in China in July and ticket sales dropped 10% in the three months leading up to June, which was the first drop in FIVE YEARS for the sector. This comes off the back of a 50% growth last year alone. Now, it is obvious to say that consumers on the mainland may be tightening the purse strings in light of a more challenging economy, but with epic films like Star Wars being released at the end of 2015, perhaps the films this year haven’t excited Chinese viewers enough. Batman vs. Superman, for example, received pretty poor reviews. So will there be a big blockbuster on the horizon to excite Chinese viewers as we near the end of the year?
Who said Retail was struggling in Asia?
COACH has just reported a massive boost in net income in the region with income at nearly SEVEN times over its final quarter. The luxury brand exhibited double-digit growth in China and strong sales in SEA. It seems that real estate (most notably the flagship store on Queens Road Central being replaced by Adidas) and its growing global footwear category are the key to their success. The outlook for the brand for 2017 is revenue growth at low-middle digits and double-digit growth for net income, which is a positive outlook for the brand and possibly also the sector…
Disclaimer: This column is designed to be a lighthearted weekly update on the global business news that I enjoyed reading. We would welcome your thoughts, comments and suggestions. Please feel free to contact us.
More next week…