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Standard Life To Create New Hong Kong Hub For Asia, Middle East
Chrissy Coleman
26 April 2013
Standard Life plans to set up a hub in Hong Kong to oversee and support its Asia and Emerging Markets unit, the UK-listed firm has said.
“Asia and the emerging markets are a key focus for our business growth, and we are committed to building a leading retail savings and investments business across the region. Over the last 18 months, we have invested significant resources to the region. We’ve launched two new branches in Singapore and Dubai, and continued to build our business in Hong Kong. We also continue to look at opportunities to leverage the investments expertise of Standard Life Investments and to work alongside our joint venture partners in China and India,” said Armitage.
According to a statement released by Standard Life, “the unit will create a more flexible foundation for further growth by streamlining decision-making and being closer to customers in fast-growing emerging markets”. While Standard Life already has an office in Hong Kong, it currently just serves the local market, whereas this new hub will support all activity in Asia and the Middle East by providing management and shared services.
The company intends to hire about 20-30 people in Hong Kong and approximately 10 people in Singapore and Dubai. It will be creating new roles in business development, product services and development, sales and marketing and operations.
The new hub, to be rolled out over the next 12 months, will be headed by Alan Armitage, chief executive of Asia and Emerging Markets, who is already based in Hong Kong.
Next step
“Bringing our regional management team to Asia and establishing a hub here is a strategic next step in enhancing and streamlining our local business, product proposition and bringing more of our people closer to our local customers. It is an exciting time for our business and we look forward to establishing and transitioning our new team on the ground over the next six to 12 months,” he continued.
The creation of the new Hong Kong hub is for Standard Life’s long-term savings and insurance business. It does not include the Standard Life Investments asset management business.
The Standard Life Group includes Standard Life, the long-term savings and investment business, and Standard Life Investment, the asset management business. The group’s assets under administration are £233.1 billion (about $357 billion) and it has around 8,500 employees internationally.