SCMP a Quiet Gaint
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B8 Saturday, November 22, 2014 COMPANY VISIT A quiet financial giant China UnionPay has maintained a low-key style as it expands overseas, compared with Visa and Master- Card. despite being one of the world’s biggest payment service providers UnionPay has secured a foot- ................................................ hold in more than 140 countries and regions and is on par with the Daniel Ren two global card giants in several [email protected] markets such as Southeast Asia, which attracts the highest num- As cash-rich mainlanders crowd ber of tourists from the mainland. popular tourist spots around the Outside the mainland, world, the dominant domestic 4.5b UnionPay issued 33 million cards payment service provider China as of the end of September and UnionPay has been sharply ex- The number of bank cards plans to “make a breakthrough” panding its global presence. China UnionPay has issued in the coming three years. Mainland consumers would since its founding The company is cautious dub the bank card company in 2002 about talking numbers while Cai “China UP”, having emerged as a said it was serious about custom- new symbol of China’s rising pro- ers’ feedback on its services. file. But the payment service Chinese shoppers are the UnionPay’s transactions “For the cardholders, seeing is giant, owned by a consortium of world’s biggest spenders on luxu- jumped 48.4 per cent last year to believing,” he said. “They will tell mainland banks led by the cen- ry items, and most of their goods reach 32.3 trillion yuan (HK$40.9 us what we need to improve.” tral bank, appears uncomfort- are bought overseas when they trillion). To vie for a bigger market able with its star status. travel. The mainland’s payment share outside of China, Union- “We are big in size but we feel To better tap mainlanders’ in- market is off-limits to foreign Pay has to understand the over- that the focus should be put on creasing wealth, UnionPay has players but UnionPay could soon seas banking and commerce sec- improving our services now,” been fine-tuning its services and face competition on home tors as well as the shopping hab- said Cai Jianbo, an executive mapping out a series of new mar- ground after Beijing pledged to its of the locals before designing vice-president of UnionPay who keting strategies to meet their de- open the market for transactions products and services to attract is also the chief executive of mands. to foreign banks and card firms customers. UnionPay International, the sub- Recently, it relaunched an on- last month. In the past, the company’s sidiary focusing on the com- line trading platform to facilitate Apparently, an expanded focus was to follow Chinese pany’s international business. cross-border shopping by con- international network in tandem travellers’ footsteps to offer them “We believe it’s the hard work sumers given their keen interest with an increasing number of services when they went abroad. and first-class service, not the in foreign-made products. outbound mainland tourists But in recent years, this focus scale, which make a company Unlike corporate giants such could become a new growth seems to have changed as Union- globally renowned.” as property developer Shanghai engine for UnionPay. Pay envisions becoming truly On the eastern bank of the Greenland Group and invest- Most mainland travellers internationalised to meet not Huangpu River in Shanghai, the ment conglomerate Fosun would give priority to using only Chinese cardholders’ de- headquarters of UnionPay Inter- Group, which are looking to tap UnionPay to settle payments mands but also overseas custom- national is located in an eight- the overseas markets with big- because it would save them up ers’ needs. storey office building. ticket spending, UnionPay dis- to 2 per cent in transaction fees In its efforts to jump deeper Although it is dwarfed by the plays a low-key style in the main- into foreign markets, more in- office buildings along the city’s land’s go-global campaign. vestments were said to have been prime areas, most of which are It is doing this despite Union- put into areas of daily consump- owned by state-controlled enter- Pay, as a dominant bank card tion including supermarkets, prises, UnionPay appears un- processor in the world’s most dining outlets, culture and enter- fazed as the company puts its populated market, being increas- It’s hard work tainment. best foot forward in going out- ingly regarded as an upcoming “UnionPay garnered experi- bound. rival to the global giants of the and first-class ence on the mammoth Chinese “We go to places where Chi- card business – Visa and Master- service … which market and to a certain extent, we nese tourists go and we want to Card. have enjoyed advantages in offer the services they need Piggybacking on the main- make a company building the infrastructure abroad,” Cai said. “Chinese land’s huge population, Union- work,” Cai said. travellers have become more so- Pay has issued 4.5 billion cards globally “We hope the experiences phisticated and they look for since its founding in 2002, mak- renowned and the technological advan- quality services, which prompts ing it the world’s largest card tages could benefit us in expand- CAI JIANBO, CHINA UNIONPAY Illustration: HenryIllustration: Wong us to work harder.” brand. ing internationally.” LAI SEE MONEY MATTERS HOWARD WINN SHIRLEY YAM Hopewell serves up for wearing down objectors. to US$400 million. One of the model commercially infeasible more planning games Hopewell has also resorted to a firm’s units is already listed in in future.” Hopewell Holdings continues to favourite trick of ensuring that Malaysia, and now Nirvana is Wanted: Chairmen to work play fast and loose with the the Town Planning Board hears looking to expand into Hong HKMA’s poor risk assessment planning system. It has its application at a time when Kong and the mainland. We all know that risk aversion is withdrawn its controversial Wan people are likely to be away or There is, it must be said, a one of the Hong Kong Monetary wonders and get paid peanuts Chai hotel proposal and distracted by other matters. In certain morbid fascination in Authority’s core values. This is submitted a new application. this case, it is January 2 next year. examining how the death not such a bad thing in principle The previous application was Objections need to be lodged by business translates value to since it runs the Exchange Fund. Beijing’s proposal to bring the much criticised Career managers will opposed by local residents December 12. prospective shareholders. “We But we gather that its gradually fill out the rest of the because it was considered to cover the entire death-care conservatism extends to its salaries of state managers into line is bold, but team. They will be rewarded have been an attempt to unravel ‘Over my dead body’ services industry value chain,” library, one of the lesser-known flawed because it won’t improve SOE efficiency with market rate and even an agreement struck with the We gather, though we have not the prospectus boasts. Nirvana but one of the best tourist spots shares. government in 2008. confirmed, that the Listings describes itself as a pioneer in in town, on account of its Without doubt, there will be The company had agreed to Committee has approved the the “pre-need market”, which splendid view of the harbour. magine you read a job of its 72 top state-owned applause. The public is angry reduce the size of a 93-storey initial public offering for “the refers to those who want to However, one of our readers advertisement along these enterprises and banks. with the widening wealth gap. hotel it was proposing to build to largest integrated death-care organise their funeral ahead of was dismayed having made it up Ilines: The new formula raises the Yet, it’s nothing but another 55 storeys in exchange for a land services provider in Asia”. The time, so to speak, as compared to the 55th floor of IFC2 with CHAIRMAN WANTED FOR percentage of profit-linked piecemeal answer to a swap agreement. It also dropped aptly named “Nirvana Asia” is with “as-need” services, when visitors, to discover that it was FORTUNE 500 COMPANY salary and brings in the new complicated problem – the low the massive “wall block” design based in Malaysia where luxury the time is up. closed to the public. There was a Location: Mainland China concept of gratuity. But most efficiency of the state sector. of the building in favour of a “Y- funeral parlour operators are Checking the “risks” section notice with a phone number for Salary and conditions: important of all, it cuts the pay Over the past 20 years, shaped” building and scrapped booming as the rich look to leave in the document, we see that those wanting further ● Basic salary is no more than significantly. investors have heard enough of significant exhibition and this world in greater style. It is they principally relate to the information. When Lai See rang two times the average salary in Take the chairman’s job at the following: convention facilities. The new looking to raise US$350 million ability to obtain land “within to inquire, we were told it had the company. China Mobile as an example. A How to improve efficiency? application drops the “wall reasonable distance of our target been closed since the beginning ● (For your reference, the back-of-the-envelope estimate Okay, let’s promise the block” design and goes back to customers”.