SamWa seeking to create foothold in UK

With international trade center, company looks to bring in Chinese firms

SamWa Group, the Hong Kong-headquartered conglomerate, is introducing investors and construction companies from China to infrastructure projects in Britain through the SamWa International Trade Center in Liverpool.

Since SamWa Chairwoman Stella Shiu registered the company in Hong Kong in 1995, it has branched into myriad sectors, including investment, trade, jewelry, mining, logistics, organic agriculture, cultural industry and commercial real estate development. In 2010, Shiu took SamWa global.

Two years later, it established the SamWa International Trade Center in Liverpool in the United Kingdom with the help of the Peel Group, one of the largest privately owned property companies in the UK.

"SamWa aims to bring more Chinese companies with global ambitions to the UK and expects them to establish a foothold in the SamWa International Trade Center," she said.

Shiu, using an old Chinese saying, said Chinese companies who "foray into overseas markets need jiechuan chuhai, or 'borrowing a boat to enter the sea'."

She said the SamWa International Trade Center is the "boat".

The project has the support from both the British and Chinese governments.

It was one of three major projects included in a China-UK cooperation memorandum signed by then Vice-Premier Li Keqiang on Jan 11, 2011.

"The complementarity between Chinese manufacturing industries and advanced European technology can generate wonderful effects," Li said at the time.

The center covers an area of 16 hectares (with a floor area of 230,000 square meters) and is part of the UK's regional development plan in the western banks of Great Britain that is seeking about $77.39 billion in overall investment.

The UK aims to attract Chinese enterprises to set up product exhibition and sales centers as well as research and development centers in Liverpool.

SamWa holds a 100-percent share of the center and a freehold on the property. It is among several Chinese private companies currently investing in UK commercial properties.

Shiu said the center also receives subsidies from the UK government to preserve the land and surrounding areas.

The center, a key area in the British government's industrial renewal plan, offers a favorable tax policy for an enterprise's first five years at the center. Companies can save up to $425,000 in local tax payments.

"The SamWa International Trade Center has the potential to become a convenient and quick path for Chinese products and services to reach the European market and for British enterprises to reach the Chinese market," Shiu said.

During the past three years, Shiu has taken business trips to Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shaanxi and Guangdong provinces to attract Chinese companies that share likeminded global development strategies.

Shiu said the center will be a digital technology and operational center for Chinese companies in the UK. Two of the four buildings proposed for the center have already been built and will be used to support high-tech projects.

She said one key factor in attracting and further expanding Chinese firms is the growth potential of Liverpool, a second-tier city in the UK.

Another factor is China's Cross-Border Inter-Bank Payments System, initiated this year for yuan-denominated payments across a multitude of transactions, from financing to direct investment to cross-border transactions.

The system is expected to boost trade and investment growth between China and the UK in the near future.

"With CIPS, business and trade are expected to be facilitated," Shiu said. "Chinese enterprises are embracing unparalleled opportunities with the launch of CIPS."

But she cautioned Chinese firms who have an interest in expanding overseas that they will be investigated by a third party agency nominated by the UK government before being allowed to establish overseas investments in the country.

She said several Chinese private companies each with annual revenue above 10 billion yuan ($1.56 billion) have recently been unable to provide full documentation for the UK government.

"Some private Chinese firms have not developed a habit of saving their commercial documents, or some prefer to hide them. This will cause problems in the vetting process in the UK," she said.

Shiu advised Chinese companies to devote more effort to researching UK laws and form research teams in embarking on a plan to begin their business in the country.

"British companies pay much more attention to the background of people while Chinese companies sometimes neglect that. A sound reputation and credibility is crucial in the UK."

She said SamWa has ambitions to tap into the pharmaceutical sector in Birmingham, Manchester and London and the UK's second and third-tier cities. It also wants to establish elderly care service businesses across the country.

Shiu was born in East China's Jiangsu province and migrated with her family to Hong Kong at the age of 4.

She received her university education from the university of Birmingham.

SamWa currently has 5,000 employees among its offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, the UK and the Philippines.

It has a 30-year mining right (from 2007 to 2039) over a 640-hectare mine in the southern Philippines that is rich in iron, nickel, manganese, copper, gold, silver and chromium. In 2008, it set up a smelting plant in Central China's Jiangxi province, with nickel as its key product.

It also has a commercial mineral water facility in Wudalianchi, a city famous for its five crater lakes and rich mineral resources in Northeast China's Heilongjiang province.

Contact the writers at lifangping@chinadaily.com.cn