Alain Groshens CEO of SystematicEdge had a good conversation with Henry Kwong tax specialist at Cheng & Cheng and Edmond Lau from the The CFO Centre hosted by the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce (HKGCC) about risk mitigation and profit maximization for companies doing cross border business. Special thanks to Angela Lee Founder of Janeclare for moderating. Angela also has her own amazing story founding her skincare company (just sharing in case you want to check out her amazing Hong Kong based company and products!). Thank you to all that joined our webinar on 10 December. If you missed it please feel free to watch the recording. To do so please click on the button below.

In November, Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca confirmed the efficiency of their vaccines, to be rolled out in 2021. The announcements provided more clarity on the economic recovery. However, going forward, we expect the economic world to be different as humans adapt and change their habits. We believe “work from home” policies will become more prevalent in the corporate world, even after the COVID pandemic is behind us, while people are becoming more conscious about health in general. Moreover, we think the green wave and ESG trend in the investment world will accelerate. The Darwinian changes, triggered or accelerated by the COVID pandemic, will progressively be reflected in the financial markets, generating rotations across sectors, regions, and asset classes. Read more about the market in this month's Market Overview.

Read our latest case study on how we were able to help one manufacturing company based in Hong Kong, improve their profit margin and minimize costs associated with currency management.

Join the webinar hosted by the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce (HKGCC) 香港總商會 on 10th of December at 10:30am, when Alain Groshens, CEO and Co-Founder of SystematicEdge, Edmond Lau, Principal for Greater China at The CFO Centre Hong Kong, and Henry Kwong, Tax Partner at Cheng & Cheng Limited (Certified Public Accountants), will discuss the future of the global currency landscape, ways to optimize profit margins, as well as pressing financial, strategic and operational risks that companies, in particular SMEs, could face in the course of conducting cross-border business. The spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, has both highlighted and exacerbated many of the risks which businesses face on a day-to-day basis while exposing the urgency to optimize profit margins. This global health crisis, accompanied by trade tensions and geopolitical uncertainty, has created an increasingly complex environment in which companies now need to operate. The challenge of coping with this 'new normal' is often greater for small and medium sized businesses (SMEs).

Europe has been severely hit by the second coronavirus wave, which has led to new lockdown measures across the continent, with a sustained negative impact on sectors such as transportation, hospitality, and tourism. In the US, election polls strongly favour a Biden victory. We believe the impact of a blue wave would be positive for China and negative for the USD as Democrats would print a record amount of money, while the Tech sector would be facing potential headwinds on the back of further taxes and potential anti-trust legislation. China’s economy continues its recovery amid rising consumer confidence, while manufacturing and non-manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Indices (PMIs) are in expansion territory (above 50). China’s fifth plenum, the country’s five-year planning summit led by President Xi Jinping, stressed the importance of sustainable growth and the development of the Tech sector and domestic market.