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Tuesday May 6, 3:42 PM
Deutsche Bank moving Hong Kong office to KowloonHONG KONG, May 6 (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank plans to move its Hong Kong offices across Victoria Harbour, making it the latest big investment bank to shift its growing operations from the space-constrained Central district to less-expensive Kowloon. Deutsche Bank said it has signed an agreement to lease up to 18 floors in the International Commerce Centre (ICC) in Kowloon, which will become the city's tallest building when it is completed, to allow staff expansion from 1,500 to up to 4,000. The move is expected to happen in the third quarter of 2010.
The German bank said its Hong Kong based staff numbers have grown by more than 60 percent since 2005, with revenues more than tripling over the same period. Many Western investment banks are struggling under the weight of massive write-downs related to subprime mortgage exposure. While part of the resulting credit crunch has reached Asia, economies in the region are still booming, with some growing more than 10 percent per year, compared with single-digit growth from large, industrialised nations. That growth has led banks to beef up Asian offices, even as they scale back elsewhere. Initial public offerings, debt underwriting and M&A advisory surged last year across Asia, though the investment banking market dropped in the first quarter. In central Hong Kong, office space is so scarce that Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse signed deals last year to move their offices to the ICC, which is being developed by Sun Hung Kai Properties . (Reporting by Michael Flaherty, Editing by Ken Wills)
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