Vincent Lo's Career Shows What It Takes For An Out

SIPPING tea in his penthouse office with sweeping views of Hong Kong harbour, Vincent Lo does not ensure the sort who spends too much time roughing it in mainland China. The 56-year-olds impeccably cut Mao-collared Blanc de Chine suit and designer haircut disguise a man who spends three days a week alert between grimy cement plants and building sites in frantic Chinese cities. Yet over the past two decades, with a relatively modest outlay of $1.5 billion, the chairman of the Shui On grouping has turned his building-materials and face firm into one of the most systematically succeederful foreign investors in China.

When it comes to parlaying social connections into business opportunities hardly a(prenominal)er can match Mr Lo. His avowed desire is to contribute to Chinas success and not just his own profits. This has earned him the trust of more of Chinas eliteâ€"and a nickname: the king of guanxi [connections]. How he reinforced his empire says much about the realities of doing business in China.

That Mr Lo was the password of a successful Hong Kong property tycoon helped only indirectly. unvoluntary to join the family firm, he was roughthing of a black sheep. His mother had to request her husband to lend their son HK$100,000 ($16,700) to start a company.



horrendous to prove himself, he took risks: going into Shanghai in 1984 when few others dared. Mr Lo built a hotel with the citys Communist Youth League. It opened as students rioted in Tiananmen Square, occupancy plunged and the league could not repay its construction loan. I helped out, says Mr Lo. Theyve never forgotten. Relationships are long term here.

hotshot of those who remembered was Han Zheng, the Youth League secretary and now mayor of Shanghai. on with Xu Kuangdi, a former Shanghai mayor with whom Mr Lo established some of the first business links between Hong Kong and Shanghai, the pair helped Mr Lo boost his biggest coup. This was the right to develop a piece of land skirt the hallowed hall where the Chinese...If you want to get a rise essay, order it on our website: Orderessay



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