“Shanghai will become Asia’s finance center,” the Hong Konger said dejectedly. With “power tilting to the mainland,” he continued, “Hong Kong will become an afterthought.”
Is he right? Are the doomsday scenarios that have haunted Hong Kong since the handover in 1997 finally coming true?
It might appear so as towering skyscrapers like the just-opened HSBC towers in the IFC dot the Shanghai skyline. Investment banking profits are soaring as Chinese companies like Youku skip the HKSE to list in America. Trying to cash in on profits, financial institutions have announced mad hiring sprees: Citigroup for one will triple its mainland employees to 10,000. Every week a billion-dollar hedge fund or private equity firm seems to announce an office there.