BCMS boosts Asia Pacific presence with Hong Kong office launch

International M&A advisor BCMS has boosted its presence in the Asia Pacific region with the launch of a new office in Hong Kong, located at Causeway Bay’s Citicorp Centre, as part of its ongoing international growth strategy.

This adds to BCMS’ Asia Pacific presence, which includes offices in Sydney and Beijing. The launch follows the establishment of BCMS Israel, increasing the overall number of the international advisory’s offices to 25.

To celebrate the launch of the advisory’s Hong Kong operations, BCMS ran a seminar event on mergers and acquisitions on 25th March, hosting close to 100 entrepreneurs and business owners at the Harbour Grand Hong Kong. Mike Sweeting, director of international development at BCMS spoke at the seminar event, alongside BCMS Hong Kong Managing Director Barkis Ip.

Ip comments: “Large companies may have deep pockets, but they are also tough negotiators. Our business model is based on generating multiple offers for our Hong Kong clients, which typically creates a 2.5 times difference between highest and lowest offers. It has been key to our success in selling hundreds of small businesses around the world, and we are pleased to be able at last to bring this to Hong Kong.”

More than 5,000 Asian businesses were sold last year in the sub-$100m range (excluding the mega-mergers and IPOs), including 250 in Hong Kong alone worth a total of $2.7bn in 2014. All experts predict global M&A activity to be even higher this year.
“It’s clear the international appetite for Hong Kong businesses is an ongoing affair. We have a lot of high-growth companies here across diverse sectors, and a long tradition of buying and selling businesses. So we’re looking forward to completing our first cross-border transaction in due course,” adds Ip.

Around 250 small firms are acquired every year in Hong Kong – of which around 30% are brought by international acquirers. In the advance of the launch the international advisory received interest from dozens of Hong Kong business owners.