On Monday and Tuesday, Miguel and I were lucky enough to be invited to the Rodman and Renshaw Annual China Investment Conference. It was held at the Royal Meriden Hotel in East Shanghai and covered Chinese sectors including agriculture, auto, clean-tech and energy, consumer/retail, education, health-care, industrial, technology, metals and mining. The conference included a timetable of corporate presentations, which were very interesting and investor one-on-one meetings (which the company I am interning with participated in, but as I do not speak Mandarin, I could not).
It was also quite annoying on Monday, because every day at work, the staff dress very casually. I usually dress very smart, but after a week of feeling over dressed, I decided to dress down a little. TYPICALLY, this would be the day that everyone in our office is in a full suit to attend the conference. I literally wanted to die. At the conference, senior execs and VCs said to me “Are you with…erm … a company here?” Major cringe. One CEO tried to cheer me up by telling me that it is usually the most disheveled person in a place that is the wealthiest or most powerful, he later joked, that I could drive him home in my Bentley. Cheers.
The next day, needless to say, I was much smarter.
The next day, needless to say, I was much smarter.
I also met a very inspirational woman who worked as a senior analyst for Rodman and Renshaw and was educated at Wharton business school in Pennsylvania. Her comprehensive up-to-date knowledge of the China capital market was completely awe-inspiring. She recommended two companies as ‘ones to watch’ in China right now. These were ‘China Marine Food’ and ‘LJ International’. China Marine Food processes seafood snacks and is a smaller capital company. She stated that they are all about differentiation through execution and entered their new market of beverages through conservative guiding. Obviously now they have a broader distribution network, this is a key risk for investors, but she would say it is one worth taking.
LJ international is a jewelry company. They started out by mainly focusing on wholesale but were hit badly by the recession. The charismatic CEO called Ringo stated that he reacted quickly and moved the key focus to retail through vertical integration. I was also hugely impressed by Ringo, (and generally by the difference a strong enigmatic CEO can make) because he sent every member of staff at LJ International a Valentines day card and a rose in a special box. What an absolute legend! He said that whilst this was a trivial cost to him, the amount of devotion and loyalty it inspired in his staff was tenfold. LJ now use a premium line called Enzo 88 (because 88 is lucky), and there is no direct Chinese translation for Enzo, as they are aiming to market it as a foreign brand to capture the affluent ambition of the new Chinese – even though ALL their jewelry is made in China!
Other hot topics at the conference included the fact that there at 200 million credit card holders in China and yet online retailers still suffer the same vulnerabilities of revenue models based on advertising. Many business men there, who had jet-lag were also discussing how 'boring the Shanghai shuffle could be', which amused me!
I also met a senior exec from the company Willis, who was telling me about the impressive history of the company. Willis Group Holdings (NYSE: WSH) is a global insurance broker. Henry Willis founded the London based company in 1828. Willis was the broker for the Titanic and also for the first commercial service of the Airbus A380, as operated by Singapore Airlines in 2007! The most impressive thing, however, is that they entered the Chinese market in 1926, before the opening of the Chinese markets! My new contact explained to me that when the Chinese did finally decide to open up the markets, Willis was one of the first international brokers to establish a close and on-going working relationship with the Chinese insurance industry, but it was not until 2004, that Willis purchased a 50% share of Pudong Insurance Broker Co., Ltd in China and renamed the company Willis Pudong Insurance Brokers Co Ltd. Their building in Chicago (where my new acquaintance is based) is the 110-story Sears Tower which was renamed the Willis Tower in July 2009. It was the world's tallest building from 1974 until 1998, when it was surpassed by the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is apparently still the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere!
This competition for tallest building in the world has intrigued me to find out…
At 5pm, when the conference was ending, I knew that my degree result was available online, so Miguel and I sped back to the office in a cab for me to find out.
WOW! I was awarded a FIRST class honors degree. I am so happy. Xx
I was literally ecstatic when I found out. I burst out crying and felt faint. People in the office must have wondered what on earth was going on! Afterward Miguel and I went for dinner at the ‘Seagull’ restaurant near work, as we knew the view at nighttime would be ideal for our celebrations. It definitely matched my mood.
Later, my flat mate Algis joined us and we decided to celebrate in style at the tallest bar in the world (in the ultra-modern Grand Hyatt Hotel); in the aptly named ‘Cloud 9’! Inside this hotel, there's the sleek Piano Bar on the 53rd floor, and the spectacular Patio Bar on the 56th floor, but none of these compare to Cloud 9, up amongst the vastness of the 87th floor - the highest bar in the world. Here with the curve of the earth and the city below in its 360 degree splendor, you genuinely feel on top of the world (especially with my first!). One discrepancy however is that Cloud 9 is almost hidden, you have to travel through a maze of lifts on opposite sides of the building to find it, my ears popped 3 times in this collection of lifts but it was most definitely worth it! We had ice cream here and looked out over the magnificent views of Shanghai.
On Tuesday, after the conference, I decided to go to the bazaar near my apartment in Da Pu Qiao to buy some presents. Later I met up with my new friend Bruce who showed me some of the sights of Shanghai. After explaining my struggle to find good vegetarian food, he told me that he knew an actual vegetarian restaurant in Pudong, where they made ‘fake meat’ and ‘fake fish’, they also did pizza and pasta, including ‘spag-bol ’ (to be eaten with chopsticks of course!). We had a vegetarian meat platter to begin with some dim sums. This was a brilliant idea and I actually really enjoyed the food! Later on, we walked down the Hunagpu River, which is an incredible sight at this time and then to a lounge in the Ritz-Carlton Shanghai.
Upon walking into this building, I immediately noticed luxury retailers including Giorgio Armani and Louis Vuitton on either side, giving the hotel quite a luxury feel. The top floor of the hotel in the IFC Tower is Flair Rooftop Restaurant and Bar. It is located on the 58th level and has an exquisite view of Oriental TV Pearl Tower. You are literally right next to it. It was too cold to sit outside but still very impressive.
On the inside, the lounge area is quite dimly lit but with big open fires which just gives it such a gorgeous ambiance. The views from this level are quite different from Cloud 9 as you can see the city much more clearly, rather than the whole of Shanghai with the slither of the river.
On Wednesday, I had a traditional Chinese massage, which involved a small Chinese woman standing on my back. It was an experience…to say the least!
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