📆02.12.2021
⏰start of first keynote 12:30 pm (CET)
📍Main Building 01-U121, Dufourstrasse 50, St. Gallen
🖋️Open to all EMC members (possible to join the club at the event) and SREC members

With $52 trillion — twice the size of the US housing market, and accounting for 29% of China's GDP (in comparison, 6.2% for US), the Chinese real estate market has been rising in the past three decades, with average growth rates netting out at around 8% per annum, leaving a popular belief in China that real estate is always safe to invest in. However, risk factors exist despite this unchallenged belief, such as unoccupied appartements accounting for 20% of total residential homes or one of the highest global price-to-income ratios.  

Given the latest turmoil around China’s second largest property developer, Evergrande, the Chinese real estate market is a particularly hot topic these days. Despite the company’s size and the soaring property prices throughout Mainland China, Evergrande managed to end up in a situation of built-up debt of 305bn USD, resulting in a net gearing rate of 177%.

But how was it possible that a company as big and diversified as Evergrande could end up in such an unfavorable situation? Was this development facilitated by the overall structure of the Chinese real estate market and recent changes in policies? How severe is the current situation, almost two months after the first news about the issue, and what are potential responses and outcomes?

Given this importance and potential impact of the topic, the EMC partners up with the Real Estate Club at HSG and is thrilled to announce its fifth event ‘Focus China Real Estate: Understanding the Evergrande Case’. The event will first provide an in-depth analysis of the Chinese real estate market, before shifting the focus on the ongoing Evergrande case, examining its root-causes and potential impact and spill overs We are therefore pleased to announce as our speakers, two experts in the field:

First speaker:

🌏 Logan H. Wright, Ph.D.: Logan Wright is the Director of China markets research at Rhodium Group and Adjunct Fellow of the Trustee Chair in Chinese Business and Economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Mr. Wright’s research focuses amongst other things on the impact of credit expansion on the Chinese financial system, China’s exchange rate policies, and the influence of the country on global currency and capital markets. He is well known for his views on China’s foreign assets and macroeconomic data. With the China Markets Research team at Rhodium Group, he monitors official institutions and real-time data closely to gauge implications for the banking system, real economic activity, and future policy directions.

Dr. Wright holds a Ph.D. from the George Washington University and a master’s in security studies and bachelor’s in foreign service from Georgetown University. He is based in Hong Kong, after living and working in Beijing for 14 years.

Second speaker:

🌏  Prof. Dr. Tomas Casas Klett: Tomas Casas Klett is a professor at the University of St. Gallen’s (HSG) Research Institute for International Management (FIM), specializing in international business with a focus on China. His research connects the new institutional realities, business models and the technology trends of the 4th Industrial Revolution. His teaching covers a variety of areas such as innovation, entrepreneurship, doing business in China, team leadership, corporate governance, or philosophy of science (PhD).

As a director at the University of St. Gallen’s China Competence Center, Professor Casas Klett supervises various research initiatives. Among these figures the Sino-Swiss Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and China entrepreneurship and innovation.

He was a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Councils (2016-2018) and is a WEF Expert Network member.

Professor Casas Klett graduated with honors from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, obtaining in parallel a Japanese language degree from Sophia University in Tokyo. He later earned a Master of Science in Management degree at Fudan University in Shanghai, followed by a Ph.D. (Doctor Oeconomiae) at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland.

Consent:

Please note that by signing up for the session you agree that the session takes place under Chatham House Rules. This means "you are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed".

We are excited for the upcoming event!

Your EMC & SREC Team