Paul Pong Po-lam said he was very lucky he got sent to St Paul's Co-Educational College as a child, even though it was a two-hour trip there and back.

Pegasus Fund Managers Ltd's founder and managing director, who grew up in the Sha Tin district of Hong Kong, said it is a great school in the city.

"The journey did make me stronger as I had to walk very fast or even run During those six or seven years, I wasn't late for school even once," he recalled.

Pong later went to the Chinese University of Hong Kong to study electronic engineering. After he graduated, he joined Jardine Matheson as executive trainee. It was not easy to get into that company at that time because Jardine Matheson was the biggest company in Hong Kong, according to Pong.

"Then I worked at Jardine Industrial Limited as product manager. At my position, I saw that Jardine sold their products to all Hong Kong manufacturers, and my job enabled me to know all kinds of manufacturers," he said.

That was in 1981. Pong said many of the manufacturers had yet to relocate their factories to the Chinese mainland, but most of them had started to move north.

The turning point

In 1985, Pong became very interested in investing as he found it more fun and challenging, and at that time, not many people know what fund management was.

In 1986, he joined a British fund management company. It was not easy to get in, and he had to put in double the effort once there.

"At that time, we got all of the money from overseas to invest into Asia, so they didn't need Chinese-speaking managers," Pong said. "Many of my colleagues were sons or daughters of super wealthy families, as their family want them to learn how to manage fund so later they can go back to their family to manage their family funds."

Pong said that most of his colleagues had graduated from Cambridge, Harvard or Columbia universities. He was one of the few from a local university.

All his hard work paid off, Pong founded Pegasus in 1990, and now he is an investment expert with more than 30 years in the fund managing industry.

For young people in Hong Kong who want to get into the financial industry, Pong's suggestion is that if you have the resources, you should invest in yourself first and try to get certification as a chartered financial analyst, certified public accountant, certified financial technologists or associate financial technologists as soon as you can.

"Nowadays, getting a law degree is very good if you want to work in the financial industry, as everything is law," he said.

"After you have invested in yourself, you can make more money, and after you have the money, you can start to invest," Pong said.

"It is not a bad idea for young people to buy a house. If you have the money, it is still a good investment. If you don't have enough money to buy property, then you can at least invest in property stocks," he said.

For those who want to be a fund manager someday, experience is quite important, Pong said. First, one has to study hard and learn about this industry. It also would be very good training if one can invest and try it with his or her own money, or the family's money.

"Then you can analyze the stocks, and analyze your own investment experience. You can show your record and what you have learned to your potential employer, to show that you are truly interested in the industry and fully committed," Pong said.

sophiehe@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 05/24/2019 page9)