Travel notes: Hong Kong

Estimated reading time: 36 minutes

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I spent most of the past week in Hong Kong, meeting companies and catching up with other investors. The trip was organized by Swen Lorenz from Undervalued-shares.com who writes a famous newsletter and also runs an asset management business called Sarnia Asset Management.

We met with 12 companies, on top of a meeting with Bernstein oil & gas analyst Neil Beverage and Internet analyst Robin Zhu.

In this post, I’ll provide some reflections from the trip, along with conclusions from each of the meetings. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comment section at the bottom of the post.

Table of contents
1. The Manhattan of Asia
2. Feedback from company meetings
   2.1. Natural Food International
   2.2. Galaxy Entertainment
   2.3. China Shineway
   2.4. Perfect Medical
   2.5. Anta Sports
   2.6. Sino Land
   2.7. Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing
   2.8. Plover Bay Technologies
   2.9. Bank of East Asia
   2.10. Lion Rock
   2.11. Lever Style
   2.12. Hypebeast
3. Conclusion

1. The Manhattan of Asia

The view from the bar “aqua” in Tsim Sha Tsui

Last weekend, I took a Cathay Pacific flight from Singapore to Hong Kong to visit companies together with Swen Lorenz and a number of other investors.

For me, it was the first time visiting since 2019. After COVID-19 broke out, Hong Kong’s borders were closed for three years. And during that period, Hong Kong introduced a National Security Law, that eventually led to roughly 4% of the population leaving.

The first sight that struck me when landing at the Hong Kong International Airport was the massive amount of construction taking place. The airport is undertaking a US$18 billion project to build a second terminal building and a third runway. Once completed in 2026, the project will increase the airport’s capacity by 50%. Wasted money, perhaps, but it does signal that the government expects air travel to grow.

A sight from one of the runways of Hong Kong International Airport

After checking into my hotel in Sheung Wan on Hong Kong Island, I felt that there were fewer people than when I last came in 2019. My trip covered part of China’s May holiday, which runs from 1 May to 5 May. Yet, I didn’t see many Chinese tourists on the streets.