HSBC Holdings unveiled a 25-storey office tower in Shenzhen’s Qianhai economic zone, presenting it as a cornerstone of the bank’s commitment to the development of the Greater Bay Area.
The HyQ tower, in the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone, is the bank’s first wholly owned building in southern China and involved an investment of more than 4 billion yuan (US$550 million). HSBC bought the building from New World Development in 2021 for 3.2 billion yuan.
The building is home to HSBC China’s Shenzhen branch, HSBC Qianhai Securities and HSBC Software Development Guangdong, a fintech centre. The bank said the tower would be a nerve centre to propel business growth in the Greater Bay Area, a collection of southern mainland cities – along with Hong Kong and Macau – that Beijing would like to be a globally competitive economic zone by 2035.
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HSBC eyes “huge potential for economic and trade cooperation between Guangdong and Hong Kong amid more world-class Chinese companies moving towards global innovation and development”, Peter Wong Tung-shun, HSBC’s Asia-Pacific chairman, said at the opening ceremony on Wednesday.
“Just like this tall building, we also have far-reaching ambitions and look forward to deepening cooperation with more partners to play a positive role in the development of the Greater Bay Area and the mutual development of the Chinese and world economies.”
The Qianhai building will house securities and financing services, wealth management, as well as private and commercial banking. Back office support will also be on site.
Last week, authorities from Hong Kong and the mainland unveiled a number of measures to support and enhance cross-border connectivity. These included a 100 billion yuan trade-finance facility and upgrades to the Bond Connect scheme. In addition, they said, it would soon be easier for Hongkongers to remotely open bank accounts on the mainland.
“All the connect schemes are the foundation,” said David Liao, HSBC’s co-CEO for Asia and the Middle East. “As more products are introduced, there’s a chance for an integrated platform to facilitate cross-border flows.” Offshore yuan liquidity will be important to realise more investment and fundraising channels, he said.
