本社調査
日本経済新聞社は19日、主要企業を対象に実施した2010年の「働きやすい会社」調査の結果をまとめた。ソニーが初めて総合ランキングの首位になった。2位の東芝をはじめ上位10位のうち電機が6社を占めた。グローバル人材の育成など時代に即した社員教育を充実させた企業や、育児・介護に配慮し多様な働き方の実現に取り組む企業が高い評価を得た。=企業ランキングと調査結果の詳細を21日付日経産業新聞に
働きやすい会社調査は日経リサーチとの共同企画で、企業の人事・労務制度の充実度を点数化し、ビジネスパーソンが重視する度合いに応じて傾斜配分してランキングを作成した。4つの項目別ランキングも作った。
総合1位のソニーは「社員の意欲を向上させる制度」の項目でトップだったほか「働く側に配慮した職場づくり」で東芝に次ぐ2位に入った。
ソニーは今春から新入社員とチューターの教育に、米海兵隊で使われている組織論「FSS理論」を導入した。
「部下を放任する」「細かく指導する」など社員を行動パターンで類型化し、1つのチームに様々なタイプを組み合わることで生産性を上げる理論で「新人の特性に合った適切な指導が可能になった」(人事企画部)。
社員1人あたりの研修費が36万8988円と1位だった点や、10月を「キャリア月間」に位置付け、社員の意欲を引き出していることも高評価につながった。
年休制度の利用 東芝、要件緩和
2位の東芝は「働く側に配慮した職場づくり」「子育てに配慮した職場づくり」の2つの項目で最多得点を獲得し、昨年の18位から躍進した。今年4月から最低1時間から取得できる年休制度の利用要件を緩和し、使い勝手を向上させた。
パナソニックは昨年1位から3位に後退したが、4つの項目すべてで4位以内に入った。今年3月までの2年間で育児休業を取得した男性社員は1386人と、日産自動車に次ぐ2位だった。
日立製作所は留学機会を提供
4位の日立製作所は「今後2年半の間に2000人の意欲ある若手社員に海外業務研修や留学の機会を提供する」、5位の凸版印刷は「本社と関連会社の垣根を取り払いグループ全体で人材を育成する」(凸版印刷)と回答。時代の変化に即して社員の成長を後押しする姿勢を示した。
20100919 nikkei: (上)立ち上がる6億人市場 - 中間層拡大 消費に熱気
【ジャカルタ=野沢康二】東南アジア諸国連合()が新たな成長期を迎えた。金融危機からいち早く立ち直り、6億人規模の域内市場は所得の底上げによる中間層の拡大で消費ブームに沸く。中国、インドという巨大な隣人に挟まれながらも、自由貿易協定(FTA)などをテコに存在感を発揮。消費市場に加え生産拠点として内外需のかみ合った発展を探るASEANに、域外国も熱い視線を送る。
中間層の拡大が消費をけん引(ジャカルタ)
「大きめの車種への買い替え需要が多い」。インドネシア・ジャカルタ郊外に先月オープンしたばかりの日産自動車の販売店でアンドレ・アダム店長がこう話す。8月の売り上げは目標の2割増し。日産は現在40強の販売拠点を2013年までに80カ所に増やす。
1~7月の同国新車販売は前年同期より75%増えた。成長を見込み、1990年代に撤退した米クライスラーが再参入。中国の浙江吉利控股集団や韓国の現代自動車が相次ぎ現地生産を開始し、中国の北京汽車工業のグループ会社も来年から小型乗用車生産を始める。
ASEANで自動車販売は絶好調だ。市場規模の小さいシンガポールを除く主要5カ国(インドネシア、タイ、マレーシア、フィリピン、ベトナム)の今年1~7月は前年の不振もあり、前年同期比44%増の約138万台。通年では約200万台だった08年を超え、過去最高を更新しそうだ。
原動力は拡大する中間層。みずほ総合研究所などによると、可処分所得5000ドル超の中間層・富裕層人口は08年、ASEAN主要5カ国で約2億600万人。1990年から5倍近くに増えた。中国(4億6000万人)には及ばないが、インド(2億人)と並ぶ。これが20年には3億9000万人近くに膨らむ見通しで、消費市場としての潜在性は大きい。
日本のイオン、英テスコ、仏カジノなどが争奪戦――。仏カルフールのタイ、マレーシア、シンガポール事業の売却を巡り流通大手のつばぜり合いが続く。カルフールは東南アジアではインドネシアに集中、来年から出店ペースをこれまでの年10店程度から同20店に増やす。同業他社はカルフールの売却事業からさらなる成長を狙う。
都市型消費スタイルの広がりでコンビニエンスストアも急拡大。セブンイレブンの5カ国での店舗数は約7200店と05年末の1.7倍だ。現地の一般的な昼食1回分かそれ以上の価格でコーヒーを提供する米スターバックスなども店舗網を広げている。旅行需要の拡大をにらみ航空大手エア・アジアは7月、ASEAN10カ国すべてをつなぐ路線網を完成させた。
アジアの消費文化に詳しいインドネシアの評論家ウィリアム・ウォンソ氏は「東南アジア全域でグルメや健康などのために出費を惜しまない中間層が着実に増えている」と話す。
米プロクター・アンド・ギャンブル(P&G)は東南アジアに適した商品の開発強化へ、13年までにシンガポールに洗顔料などの研究開発拠点を開く。スイスの食品大手ネスレも、インスタントコーヒーの開発部門をスイスからシンガポールに移管した。立ち上がる6億人市場を見据え、ASEAN内外の企業の動きも活発になっている。
source: nikkei
可処分所得[ disposable income ]
個人所得から税と社会保障負担などを差し引いた残りの部分で、個人が自由に処分できる所得。個人の購買力を測る1つの目安となっている。
.
(中)正念場の対米・対中外交
民主党政権発足から1年。日本の対米・対中外交が正念場を迎えている。沖縄県の米軍普天間基地の移設問題は進展の糸口もつかめぬまま。尖閣諸島(中国名・釣魚島)付近での海上保安庁巡視船と中国漁船の衝突事件は、中国側の閣僚級以上の暫定的な交流停止に発展した。
記者会見する前原外相(17日、首相官邸)
普天間は長期戦
「沖縄のみなさんにおわびしながら何とか受け入れていただき……」。外相は17日の就任記者会見で、日米で合意した普天間基地の名護市辺野古への移設について「おわび」という言葉を使った。「最低でも県外(移設)」と繰り返した鳩山由紀夫前首相が沖縄県民の怒りを買ったとはいえ、外相の「おわび」発言は意外感を持って受け止められた。
国土交通相だった今年5月。「日本は米国との連携でなければ極めて脆弱(ぜいじゃく)な状況に置かれているというのは、国民に政治の責任としてしっかりと知らしめるべきだ」と訴え、対米重視をことさら説いていたからだ。
外相の外交・安保観には京大在学中に師事した国際政治学者、故高坂正尭教授の影響がある。軽武装、経済重視の戦後日本外交の路線を敷いた吉田茂首相を扱った著書「宰相吉田茂」など高坂氏に脈打つのは現実主義だ。外相の「低姿勢」にも、この現実主義がにじむ。
12日の名護市議選は普天間基地移設に反対する市長派が過半数を占め、外相の「べき論」と現実の距離は開くばかり。「沖縄の理解を得られないと話にならない。じっくり時間をかけることが必要だ」。外相は19日、都内で記者団に長期戦で臨む考えを表明した。
11月末の沖縄県知事選以降も普天間問題の推移は不透明。外相は滑走路の位置などを含めた決着時に開催する予定の日米安全保障協議委員会(2プラス2)も「秋という話は一切ない」と明言した。
ガス田も難題
「低姿勢」が誤解を与えかねない問題もある。日中両国が権益を主張している東シナ海のガス田「白樺」(中国名・春暁)。新たに機材を搬入した中国は「修理のため」と説明するが、日本政府内で額面通り信じる空気はない。外相は18日、菅直人首相らと中国側が単独で掘削に踏み切った場合、対抗措置を取る方針を申し合わせた。
「中国の台頭を踏まえて本来、日米関係を強めるべきだが、今の政権はできていない。国家利益を追求する中国を制御するメカニズムをつくるべきだ」。神保謙・慶大准教授は指摘する。普天間問題で対米関係が悪化し、衝突事件をきっかけに対中関係は緊張が続く。日米を基軸に戦略を兼ね備えた日本外交を構築できるか。首相は国連総会出席のため22日に米国に向けて出発。23日にオバマ米大統領と会談する。
source: nikkei
記者会見する前原外相(17日、首相官邸)
普天間は長期戦
「沖縄のみなさんにおわびしながら何とか受け入れていただき……」。外相は17日の就任記者会見で、日米で合意した普天間基地の名護市辺野古への移設について「おわび」という言葉を使った。「最低でも県外(移設)」と繰り返した鳩山由紀夫前首相が沖縄県民の怒りを買ったとはいえ、外相の「おわび」発言は意外感を持って受け止められた。
国土交通相だった今年5月。「日本は米国との連携でなければ極めて脆弱(ぜいじゃく)な状況に置かれているというのは、国民に政治の責任としてしっかりと知らしめるべきだ」と訴え、対米重視をことさら説いていたからだ。
外相の外交・安保観には京大在学中に師事した国際政治学者、故高坂正尭教授の影響がある。軽武装、経済重視の戦後日本外交の路線を敷いた吉田茂首相を扱った著書「宰相吉田茂」など高坂氏に脈打つのは現実主義だ。外相の「低姿勢」にも、この現実主義がにじむ。
12日の名護市議選は普天間基地移設に反対する市長派が過半数を占め、外相の「べき論」と現実の距離は開くばかり。「沖縄の理解を得られないと話にならない。じっくり時間をかけることが必要だ」。外相は19日、都内で記者団に長期戦で臨む考えを表明した。
11月末の沖縄県知事選以降も普天間問題の推移は不透明。外相は滑走路の位置などを含めた決着時に開催する予定の日米安全保障協議委員会(2プラス2)も「秋という話は一切ない」と明言した。
ガス田も難題
「低姿勢」が誤解を与えかねない問題もある。日中両国が権益を主張している東シナ海のガス田「白樺」(中国名・春暁)。新たに機材を搬入した中国は「修理のため」と説明するが、日本政府内で額面通り信じる空気はない。外相は18日、菅直人首相らと中国側が単独で掘削に踏み切った場合、対抗措置を取る方針を申し合わせた。
「中国の台頭を踏まえて本来、日米関係を強めるべきだが、今の政権はできていない。国家利益を追求する中国を制御するメカニズムをつくるべきだ」。神保謙・慶大准教授は指摘する。普天間問題で対米関係が悪化し、衝突事件をきっかけに対中関係は緊張が続く。日米を基軸に戦略を兼ね備えた日本外交を構築できるか。首相は国連総会出席のため22日に米国に向けて出発。23日にオバマ米大統領と会談する。
source: nikkei
SOEs profits up 46.7% in 1st 8 months
Xinhua, September 19, 2010
Profits of China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) jumped 46.7 percent to 1.26 trillion yuan (186.6 billion U.S.dollars) from a year ago in the first eight months of this year, the Ministry of Finance said in Beijing Sunday.
In August, combined profits of Chinese SOEs grew 6.8 percent month on month, the ministry said in a statement on its website.
Business revenue totaled 19.4 trillion yuan in the period, up 37.6 percent from a year earlier. The figure for August alone was 4 percent higher than the July level.
Most of the major sectors, except the tobacco industry, posted year-on-year profit growth in the first eight months.
For August, profits for power generation, petrochemicals, oil, non-ferrous metals and coal industries were higher than the July level, said the ministry.
However, machinery, iron and steel, commercial and trade, construction and real estate, and auto sectors saw profits decline month on month, the ministry said without giving reasons.
China's SOEs include SOEs directly controlled by the central government and SOEs supervised by local governments, but exclude state-owned financial enterprises.
Profits of China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) jumped 46.7 percent to 1.26 trillion yuan (186.6 billion U.S.dollars) from a year ago in the first eight months of this year, the Ministry of Finance said in Beijing Sunday.
In August, combined profits of Chinese SOEs grew 6.8 percent month on month, the ministry said in a statement on its website.
Business revenue totaled 19.4 trillion yuan in the period, up 37.6 percent from a year earlier. The figure for August alone was 4 percent higher than the July level.
Most of the major sectors, except the tobacco industry, posted year-on-year profit growth in the first eight months.
For August, profits for power generation, petrochemicals, oil, non-ferrous metals and coal industries were higher than the July level, said the ministry.
However, machinery, iron and steel, commercial and trade, construction and real estate, and auto sectors saw profits decline month on month, the ministry said without giving reasons.
China's SOEs include SOEs directly controlled by the central government and SOEs supervised by local governments, but exclude state-owned financial enterprises.
Hedge Fund Managers Set Up for Next Acts
By JULIE CRESWELL
Published: September 16, 2010
James J. Pallotta, a legend of the hedge fund industry, is calling a do-over.
After shutting his giant fund following a humbling loss, Mr. Pallotta, the money manager who is an owner of the Boston Celtics, is doing what hedge fund types do in tough times: he is opening a new fund.
There have been plenty of mulligans in the rarefied realm of hedge funds these days. Mr. Pallotta, 52, is one of a number of prominent money managers who are trying to start afresh after the tumult of the financial crisis.
By closing one fund and opening another, managers can, in a stroke, wipe clean their investment records and start collecting fees from new investors.
Who would entrust their money to a hedge fund washout? Plenty of people, it turns out. Before the financial collapse, Mr. Pallotta had a record of handsome returns. His new fund, called Raptor Evolution (his old one was Raptor Global), will in all likelihood have no trouble drumming up investors, analysts said.
“Will it be easy for him to raise money? Yes,” said Tim Berry, a head of hedge fund investments at Private Advisors, a Richmond, Va., firm that advises large institutions on their investments. “He has a long track record of success.”
Others hoping for a comeback include Gabe Nechamkin, a former trader for George Soros, and John W. Meriwether, whose Long-Term Capital Management failed spectacularly in 1998. Mr. Nechamkin is on his second fund, Mr. Meriwether his third.
Not everyone will get a second or third chance. Hedge funds, whose outsize returns — and paydays — defined an era of Wall Street riches, are in the midst of a painful shakeout.
Over the last two and a half years, investors have withdrawn nearly $320 billion from these private investment pools, leaving the industry’s combined assets at $1.5 trillion, according to data from BarclayHedge.
Small funds have been hit hardest. Since their number worldwide peaked at 12,000 in 2007, it has fallen to about 8,400, according to research from the executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles.
The industry as a whole struggled in 2008 and 2009, and this year is not looking much better. For the year through the end of August, the average hedge fund was down 1.4 percent, according to Lipper, a unit of Thomson Reuters. Investors are increasingly asking themselves whether they would be better off putting their money in a low-cost index fund. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index is up 0.5 percent.
Given that showing, nearly half of the hedge funds included in the Hedge Fund Research Index have been running below the levels they need to attain to earn their rich performance fees for the last three years. (Hedge funds typically charge a management fee of 1 to 2 percent and take a 20 percent cut of profits provided they pass performance milestones known as high water marks.)
“It’s a pretty crowded field with very high fees,” said Todd Buchholz, a former managing director at Tiger Management, the hedge fund firm run by Julian H. Robertson Jr.
“I don’t see that this is the death or the last gasp of hedge funds, but there is certainly a shaking out going on here,” said Mr. Buchholz, who now oversees a real estate hedge fund called Two Oceans. Some managers are closing underperforming or money-losing funds and trying to persuade their old investors, plus some new ones, to provide new capital.
These funds face two challenges, however. Many have to agree to make up past losses before earning a performance fee from their previous investors — if those investors return at all.
Most also have to indicate to investors that they have learned their lessons and that the investment strategies of their new funds — at least on the surface — will address past problems.
Jeffrey Gendell’s firm, Tontine Capital Partners, averaged returns of 38 percent from 1997 to 2007. Tontine Capital oversaw $7 billion before it closed two funds that had lost more than two-thirds of their value in 2008; a few months later, in 2009, Mr. Gendell opened a new hedge fund.
The new fund, Mr. Gendell said in a letter to investors, would invest only in easy-to-trade securities and would not use leverage, or borrowed money, to improve its returns. Mr. Gendell vowed he would not collect performance fees until investors had recouped their previous losses. A spokesman said Mr. Gendell declined to comment.
It is unclear whether Mr. Nechamkin and Mr. Meriwether, neither of whom returned a call, are using new and improved strategies or offering to make legacy investors whole before collecting new performance fees.
The looming question for these and other managers is whether investors are willing to forgive and forget.
Hedge fund managers and their employees are reluctant to discuss their attempted comebacks. One individual who worked at a fund that closed and is now trying to raise money for a new fund said many in the industry were trying to play up their past success, rather than their recent losses.
“It creates a weird dynamic,” this person said, who asked not to be named so as not to jeopardize the new fund. “You want to be part of the good, but not part of the bad.”
For Mr. Pallotta, whose Raptor funds had more than $12 billion in assets at their height, there were a lot of good years.
Mr. Pallotta — who recently built a 27,000-square-foot home in one of Boston’s wealthiest enclaves — posted average annual returns of 19.2 percent in the 15 years he worked for the billionaire Paul Tudor Jones and five years before that at Essex Investment Management.
Raptor was spun out of Tudor Investments in late 2008, after the fund lost 20 percent. Turning in a flat performance in the first few months of 2009, Mr. Pallotta shut the fund n that June, telling investors in a letter that he had doubts about “the sustainability of certain aspects of the industry’s structure and short-term focus.”
A spokesman said Mr. Pallotta declined to comment.
With his new fund, Mr. Pallotta is going back to Square 1, recreating the conditions that he had at the start of his career, said a person with knowledge of the fund, who declined to be named because of continuing efforts to raise capital.
Using a small team and focusing on a small number of securities, Mr. Pallotta is not looking to become a megafund for now, this person said. So far, Mr. Pallotta has won back some old investors, as well as new ones. But he will not earn a performance fee on the new fund until previous investors recoup their losses.
As Mr. Berry put it: “If he’s passionate about investing and doesn’t mind working with a smaller capital base for a while and wants to prove to investors he’s still got it, then he’ll do fine.”
Related Searches
Hedge Funds
Subprime Mortgage Crisis
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Published: September 16, 2010
James J. Pallotta, a legend of the hedge fund industry, is calling a do-over.
After shutting his giant fund following a humbling loss, Mr. Pallotta, the money manager who is an owner of the Boston Celtics, is doing what hedge fund types do in tough times: he is opening a new fund.
There have been plenty of mulligans in the rarefied realm of hedge funds these days. Mr. Pallotta, 52, is one of a number of prominent money managers who are trying to start afresh after the tumult of the financial crisis.
By closing one fund and opening another, managers can, in a stroke, wipe clean their investment records and start collecting fees from new investors.
Who would entrust their money to a hedge fund washout? Plenty of people, it turns out. Before the financial collapse, Mr. Pallotta had a record of handsome returns. His new fund, called Raptor Evolution (his old one was Raptor Global), will in all likelihood have no trouble drumming up investors, analysts said.
“Will it be easy for him to raise money? Yes,” said Tim Berry, a head of hedge fund investments at Private Advisors, a Richmond, Va., firm that advises large institutions on their investments. “He has a long track record of success.”
Others hoping for a comeback include Gabe Nechamkin, a former trader for George Soros, and John W. Meriwether, whose Long-Term Capital Management failed spectacularly in 1998. Mr. Nechamkin is on his second fund, Mr. Meriwether his third.
Not everyone will get a second or third chance. Hedge funds, whose outsize returns — and paydays — defined an era of Wall Street riches, are in the midst of a painful shakeout.
Over the last two and a half years, investors have withdrawn nearly $320 billion from these private investment pools, leaving the industry’s combined assets at $1.5 trillion, according to data from BarclayHedge.
Small funds have been hit hardest. Since their number worldwide peaked at 12,000 in 2007, it has fallen to about 8,400, according to research from the executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles.
The industry as a whole struggled in 2008 and 2009, and this year is not looking much better. For the year through the end of August, the average hedge fund was down 1.4 percent, according to Lipper, a unit of Thomson Reuters. Investors are increasingly asking themselves whether they would be better off putting their money in a low-cost index fund. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index is up 0.5 percent.
Given that showing, nearly half of the hedge funds included in the Hedge Fund Research Index have been running below the levels they need to attain to earn their rich performance fees for the last three years. (Hedge funds typically charge a management fee of 1 to 2 percent and take a 20 percent cut of profits provided they pass performance milestones known as high water marks.)
“It’s a pretty crowded field with very high fees,” said Todd Buchholz, a former managing director at Tiger Management, the hedge fund firm run by Julian H. Robertson Jr.
“I don’t see that this is the death or the last gasp of hedge funds, but there is certainly a shaking out going on here,” said Mr. Buchholz, who now oversees a real estate hedge fund called Two Oceans. Some managers are closing underperforming or money-losing funds and trying to persuade their old investors, plus some new ones, to provide new capital.
These funds face two challenges, however. Many have to agree to make up past losses before earning a performance fee from their previous investors — if those investors return at all.
Most also have to indicate to investors that they have learned their lessons and that the investment strategies of their new funds — at least on the surface — will address past problems.
Jeffrey Gendell’s firm, Tontine Capital Partners, averaged returns of 38 percent from 1997 to 2007. Tontine Capital oversaw $7 billion before it closed two funds that had lost more than two-thirds of their value in 2008; a few months later, in 2009, Mr. Gendell opened a new hedge fund.
The new fund, Mr. Gendell said in a letter to investors, would invest only in easy-to-trade securities and would not use leverage, or borrowed money, to improve its returns. Mr. Gendell vowed he would not collect performance fees until investors had recouped their previous losses. A spokesman said Mr. Gendell declined to comment.
It is unclear whether Mr. Nechamkin and Mr. Meriwether, neither of whom returned a call, are using new and improved strategies or offering to make legacy investors whole before collecting new performance fees.
The looming question for these and other managers is whether investors are willing to forgive and forget.
Hedge fund managers and their employees are reluctant to discuss their attempted comebacks. One individual who worked at a fund that closed and is now trying to raise money for a new fund said many in the industry were trying to play up their past success, rather than their recent losses.
“It creates a weird dynamic,” this person said, who asked not to be named so as not to jeopardize the new fund. “You want to be part of the good, but not part of the bad.”
For Mr. Pallotta, whose Raptor funds had more than $12 billion in assets at their height, there were a lot of good years.
Mr. Pallotta — who recently built a 27,000-square-foot home in one of Boston’s wealthiest enclaves — posted average annual returns of 19.2 percent in the 15 years he worked for the billionaire Paul Tudor Jones and five years before that at Essex Investment Management.
Raptor was spun out of Tudor Investments in late 2008, after the fund lost 20 percent. Turning in a flat performance in the first few months of 2009, Mr. Pallotta shut the fund n that June, telling investors in a letter that he had doubts about “the sustainability of certain aspects of the industry’s structure and short-term focus.”
A spokesman said Mr. Pallotta declined to comment.
With his new fund, Mr. Pallotta is going back to Square 1, recreating the conditions that he had at the start of his career, said a person with knowledge of the fund, who declined to be named because of continuing efforts to raise capital.
Using a small team and focusing on a small number of securities, Mr. Pallotta is not looking to become a megafund for now, this person said. So far, Mr. Pallotta has won back some old investors, as well as new ones. But he will not earn a performance fee on the new fund until previous investors recoup their losses.
As Mr. Berry put it: “If he’s passionate about investing and doesn’t mind working with a smaller capital base for a while and wants to prove to investors he’s still got it, then he’ll do fine.”
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Chinese Investors Flock to London to Buy Real Estate
By JULIA WERDIGIER and BETTINA WASSENER
Published: September 17, 2010
LONDON — Naomi Minegishi, 21, a Japanese woman who lived in China for 10 years, recently took a job with the London property broker Felicity J Lord.
Ms. Minegishi was hired not for her experience in real estate sales — she is studying management at a London university — but for her language ability. She is fluent in Mandarin, an increasingly valuable skill in London’s residential real estate market.
With her help, the agency recently sold four three-bedroom apartments in a new development for £320,000, about $500,000, each to a different Chinese buyer and solely on the basis of photos and floor plans. The new construction is close to the Olympic stadium, and the investors are betting that real estate prices will rise before the Games in 2012.
Chinese clients are a dream, Ms. Minegishi said. “They are wealthy, they pay in cash, and they’re looking for good value.”
Chinese citizens require approval from their local authorities to invest more than the equivalent of $50,000 a year overseas. But many wealthy Chinese elude the restrictions with help from trust funds and foreign bank accounts, real estate brokers say.
The London property market might have shown signs of cooling recently, but investors from mainland China and Hong Kong are busier than ever — bidding, for example, on luxury apartments in the fashionable Knightsbridge district down the road from Harrods department store and on new homes near the Canary Wharf financial district.
In some parts of London, mainland Chinese investors have already replaced those from Russia and the Middle East as the busiest real estate buyers with deep pockets, looking for trophy assets and pushing up prices, some brokers say.
Buyers from mainland China are a tiny portion of purchasers of high-end real estate in London, accounting for 5 percent of all purchases by foreigners of London properties valued from £500,000 to £1 million this year. But they are a growing presence. They accounted for less than 1 percent of purchases in that price range last year, according to Savills, a real estate agency.
Europeans still make up the largest portion, Savills says, although it does not break down buyers by country.
Unlike clients from Russia and the Middle East, however, few Chinese buyers are looking for London apartments to live in themselves. A majority of them are seeking investments in a real estate market they perceive as more stable than their own and are planning to receive steady rental income for years, Ms. Minegishi said.
For wealthy Asians, fears that governments may impose more constraints on red-hot local property markets back home have made investments abroad more attractive.
Rapid economic growth and easy credit caused real estate prices in many parts of Asia to rise sharply late last year. In Hong Kong, for example, prices for luxury homes have jumped 45 percent since 2009, according to Savills.
Last month, to prevent prices from overheating, Singapore raised the down payment required for many home purchases. The step followed similar measures in mainland China and Hong Kong this year.
By contrast, prices dropped more than 10 percent across Britain after Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008, although the prices of exclusive properties in London held up better than those in the rest of the country, buoyed by foreign buyers.
Prices of high-end London real estate rose 8.75 percent in 2009, compared with a drop of 2.25 percent in the southwest of Britain, Savills said.
Not surprisingly, the property industry in Britain is adapting to meet the Chinese demand. Brokers are hiring Mandarin speakers like Ms. Minegishi, as well as Cantonese speakers to cater to people from Hong Kong.
Savills organized a seminar in Shanghai in July to teach 100 clients how to buy real estate in London. A rival agency, Hamptons International, opened an office in Hong Kong with four employees about two months ago.
Some London developers, meanwhile, are omitting the number four in new buildings because it is considered unlucky in Chinese culture.
“Most developers in London are including China in their marketing efforts,” said Matthew Tack, a director at Hamptons in London. “They’d be silly not to.”
The increase in transactions highlights a gradual shift in wealth to Asia, including mainland China. Free of the debt levels that still haunt Western households and governments, much of Asia began to recover rapidly from the global economic downturn last year.
And although a large majority of Asians still struggle to make ends meet, the booming growth has catapulted many into the ranks of the wealthy and superwealthy.
In mainland China alone, the number of people with assets worth more than 10 million renminbi, or $1.5 million, rose 6.1 percent, to 875,000, in a year, according to the Hurun Research Institute in Shanghai.
Then there are the fabulously wealthy, like Joseph Lau, a Hong Kong real estate billionaire who recently spent £33 million on a six-floor mansion in Eaton Square in London, an address he shares with the Russian oligarch Roman A. Abramovich. Mr. Lau’s son, Lau Ming-wai, studied at the London School of Economics and then worked for Goldman Sachs in London.
More typical, though, are Asian buyers spending £1 million or less. Because of China’s restrictions on overseas investments, most of the Chinese buyers pay cash to minimize the paper trail. None of the London brokers interviewed for this article were willing to disclose the identities of buyers or introduce them to a reporter.
Although Chinese are becoming more active in many overseas real estate markets, including the United States and Continental Europe, London remains highly popular for a variety of reasons, brokers say. Britain has almost no restrictions on whether foreigners can own real estate, and a fairly fluid rental market, which is attractive to buyers seeking income from their properties.
Cultural issues, especially the Chinese emphasis on education, also favor the acquisition of London addresses.
Education is generally the largest budget item in a Chinese household, and many families hope to send their children to elite universities in Britain, which tend to admit more foreign students than top universities in the United States, said Jeff Cao, head of the China sector for Think London, a government-supported agency that helps attract foreign investment to the city.
The number of Chinese students at London universities rose 9 percent, to 948, last year from 867 a year earlier, according to the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service.
For some Chinese buyers in London, Mr. Cao said, the idea is to find apartments big enough to provide the children with more comfortable accommodations than student dormitories and that have spare rooms that can be rented out. Once the children graduate, their parents aim to rent out the whole apartment.
One mainland Chinese investor who owns real estate in London and elsewhere said his London investments were his most lucrative.
“I bought a flat for my daughter’s use when she was studying in London and other flats I have rented out or sold,” Mr. Lai, the owner, who declined to give his first name to protect his privacy, wrote by e-mail.
“The U.K. traditionally has a very good legal structure with good law and order,” Mr. Lai wrote. “That, together with the city’s financial institutions and the British people’s love for owning their own homes, makes the property market extremely attractive.”
Real estate brokers who cater to Chinese customers say it is unclear whether and when the appetite from China will start to ebb. But there is no indication of a pullback yet.
Bettina Wassener reported from Hong Kong.
Published: September 17, 2010
LONDON — Naomi Minegishi, 21, a Japanese woman who lived in China for 10 years, recently took a job with the London property broker Felicity J Lord.
Ms. Minegishi was hired not for her experience in real estate sales — she is studying management at a London university — but for her language ability. She is fluent in Mandarin, an increasingly valuable skill in London’s residential real estate market.
With her help, the agency recently sold four three-bedroom apartments in a new development for £320,000, about $500,000, each to a different Chinese buyer and solely on the basis of photos and floor plans. The new construction is close to the Olympic stadium, and the investors are betting that real estate prices will rise before the Games in 2012.
Chinese clients are a dream, Ms. Minegishi said. “They are wealthy, they pay in cash, and they’re looking for good value.”
Chinese citizens require approval from their local authorities to invest more than the equivalent of $50,000 a year overseas. But many wealthy Chinese elude the restrictions with help from trust funds and foreign bank accounts, real estate brokers say.
The London property market might have shown signs of cooling recently, but investors from mainland China and Hong Kong are busier than ever — bidding, for example, on luxury apartments in the fashionable Knightsbridge district down the road from Harrods department store and on new homes near the Canary Wharf financial district.
In some parts of London, mainland Chinese investors have already replaced those from Russia and the Middle East as the busiest real estate buyers with deep pockets, looking for trophy assets and pushing up prices, some brokers say.
Buyers from mainland China are a tiny portion of purchasers of high-end real estate in London, accounting for 5 percent of all purchases by foreigners of London properties valued from £500,000 to £1 million this year. But they are a growing presence. They accounted for less than 1 percent of purchases in that price range last year, according to Savills, a real estate agency.
Europeans still make up the largest portion, Savills says, although it does not break down buyers by country.
Unlike clients from Russia and the Middle East, however, few Chinese buyers are looking for London apartments to live in themselves. A majority of them are seeking investments in a real estate market they perceive as more stable than their own and are planning to receive steady rental income for years, Ms. Minegishi said.
For wealthy Asians, fears that governments may impose more constraints on red-hot local property markets back home have made investments abroad more attractive.
Rapid economic growth and easy credit caused real estate prices in many parts of Asia to rise sharply late last year. In Hong Kong, for example, prices for luxury homes have jumped 45 percent since 2009, according to Savills.
Last month, to prevent prices from overheating, Singapore raised the down payment required for many home purchases. The step followed similar measures in mainland China and Hong Kong this year.
By contrast, prices dropped more than 10 percent across Britain after Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008, although the prices of exclusive properties in London held up better than those in the rest of the country, buoyed by foreign buyers.
Prices of high-end London real estate rose 8.75 percent in 2009, compared with a drop of 2.25 percent in the southwest of Britain, Savills said.
Not surprisingly, the property industry in Britain is adapting to meet the Chinese demand. Brokers are hiring Mandarin speakers like Ms. Minegishi, as well as Cantonese speakers to cater to people from Hong Kong.
Savills organized a seminar in Shanghai in July to teach 100 clients how to buy real estate in London. A rival agency, Hamptons International, opened an office in Hong Kong with four employees about two months ago.
Some London developers, meanwhile, are omitting the number four in new buildings because it is considered unlucky in Chinese culture.
“Most developers in London are including China in their marketing efforts,” said Matthew Tack, a director at Hamptons in London. “They’d be silly not to.”
The increase in transactions highlights a gradual shift in wealth to Asia, including mainland China. Free of the debt levels that still haunt Western households and governments, much of Asia began to recover rapidly from the global economic downturn last year.
And although a large majority of Asians still struggle to make ends meet, the booming growth has catapulted many into the ranks of the wealthy and superwealthy.
In mainland China alone, the number of people with assets worth more than 10 million renminbi, or $1.5 million, rose 6.1 percent, to 875,000, in a year, according to the Hurun Research Institute in Shanghai.
Then there are the fabulously wealthy, like Joseph Lau, a Hong Kong real estate billionaire who recently spent £33 million on a six-floor mansion in Eaton Square in London, an address he shares with the Russian oligarch Roman A. Abramovich. Mr. Lau’s son, Lau Ming-wai, studied at the London School of Economics and then worked for Goldman Sachs in London.
More typical, though, are Asian buyers spending £1 million or less. Because of China’s restrictions on overseas investments, most of the Chinese buyers pay cash to minimize the paper trail. None of the London brokers interviewed for this article were willing to disclose the identities of buyers or introduce them to a reporter.
Although Chinese are becoming more active in many overseas real estate markets, including the United States and Continental Europe, London remains highly popular for a variety of reasons, brokers say. Britain has almost no restrictions on whether foreigners can own real estate, and a fairly fluid rental market, which is attractive to buyers seeking income from their properties.
Cultural issues, especially the Chinese emphasis on education, also favor the acquisition of London addresses.
Education is generally the largest budget item in a Chinese household, and many families hope to send their children to elite universities in Britain, which tend to admit more foreign students than top universities in the United States, said Jeff Cao, head of the China sector for Think London, a government-supported agency that helps attract foreign investment to the city.
The number of Chinese students at London universities rose 9 percent, to 948, last year from 867 a year earlier, according to the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service.
For some Chinese buyers in London, Mr. Cao said, the idea is to find apartments big enough to provide the children with more comfortable accommodations than student dormitories and that have spare rooms that can be rented out. Once the children graduate, their parents aim to rent out the whole apartment.
One mainland Chinese investor who owns real estate in London and elsewhere said his London investments were his most lucrative.
“I bought a flat for my daughter’s use when she was studying in London and other flats I have rented out or sold,” Mr. Lai, the owner, who declined to give his first name to protect his privacy, wrote by e-mail.
“The U.K. traditionally has a very good legal structure with good law and order,” Mr. Lai wrote. “That, together with the city’s financial institutions and the British people’s love for owning their own homes, makes the property market extremely attractive.”
Real estate brokers who cater to Chinese customers say it is unclear whether and when the appetite from China will start to ebb. But there is no indication of a pullback yet.
Bettina Wassener reported from Hong Kong.
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