The British Stake in Hong Kong: Direct Investment

Hong Kong is one of the main locations of British direct investment abroad, but there are wide discrepancies in official data on the scale of it. Hong Kong figures (end1995) book value of the British stake in Hong Kong at about £10.6 billions, nearly three times the British figure. We examine the reasons, largely definitional, for the gap, and conclude that £10.1 billions, some 5.1% of British FDI, is a reasonable estimate. This generates earnings of £2.5 billions a year, a total exceeded only by those from the United States, and one-tenth of the worldwide total. We also estimate that the market value of the British direct investment stake in Hong Kong was about £34 billions at the end of 1995. Recent volatility in stock markets resulted in this figure rising to a peak of £55 billions and then falling to 26 billions before recovering somewhat. Hong Kong's FDI in Britain is on a far smaller scale, with a market value of perhaps £3 billions, of which property investment may account for one third.

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