Chinese companies make strides in the UK

Zhou Xiaoming, minister counselor with the economic and commercial office at the Chinese embassy in London. [Photo by Cecily Liu/China Daily Europe]

In financial services, the oldest bank to expand into the UK is Bank of China, originally opening an agency office in 1929 and upgrading the status to a branch in 1946.

Following Bank of China's footsteps, China's biggest banks have all established a presence in London, including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank.

One major game changer is the granting of a branch license to ICBC this year, making the bank the first Chinese bank to receive a branch license since regulatory changes following the 2008 financial crisis have limited foreign banks' UK expansions to subsidiaries only.

Zhou says ICBC's branch license is a great achievement and he expects more Chinese banks' applications for branch licenses will be granted in the near future.

Different from subsidiaries, which are regulated in the same way as British local banks, branches of overseas banks have lending and financing capabilities proportional to their parent companies' balance sheets.

Meanwhile, in the technology, equipment and manufacturing sectors, many leading Chinese companies have established rapidly expanding sales in the UK market, says Zhou, naming Lenovo, Haier, NVC, and Mindray as examples.

The computer maker Lenovo has established sales of computers and other IT items in Europe after its acquisition of IBM's personal computer business in 2005, whilst the white goods giant Haier has established aggressive European expansion plans with product sales and research and development across Europe.

NVC Lighting Technology Corporation has an assembling factory in Birmingham, producing lights for wholesale customers. Medical equipment maker Mindray has also made tremendous progress in the UK, as its equipment is now used by many hospitals under the UK's National Health Service.

"Many Chinese manufacturing companies used to just sell products as OEM (original equipment manufacturing) providers, but now they are doing well to build a brand and selling their own branded products in the UK. NVC is a good example of this," Zhou says.

"These brands have the advantage of good quality and competitive prices, although they are not always the cheapest in the product range," he says.

In addition, Zhou points out that many Chinese manufacturing and brands companies are now expanding through acquisitions rather than organic gorwth.

In 2013 Dalian Wanda bought British yacht company Sunseeker. Bright Food acquired the British cereal maker Weetabix in 2012, and earlier this year Sanpower bought a majority stake in the department store chain House of Fraser.

In the manufacturing sector, Chinese company Zhuzhou CSR Times Electric acquired British company Dynex Semiconductor Ltd in 2008, and Shandong Yongtai Chemical Group became a majority owner of the British car body parts maker Covpress in 2013, just to name a few examples.

Zhou says he is particularly optimistic about the model of Chinese companies' UK expansion through acquisitions, explaining this process is like "buying time" because the strong technology strength and brand value that British companies have taken decades to develop will be gained through the acquisitions.

"Chinese investors can inject capital into the British companies they buy, helping them to further develop their technology and brands, but also help them to access the Chinese market or enlarge their scale of production through China's manufacturing capacity. It's a win-win cooperation," Zhou says.

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