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Globaleye, the Dubai-headquartered advisory firm, has opened a new office in the Chinese megacity of Shanghai, and is closing its two-year-old Brazil operation.

The two moves, coming almost simultaneously, reflect the realities of the respective markets for advisory services, according to Globaleye chairman and founder Tim Searle.

Both markets are growing, he said, but for a variety of reasons Brazil failed to catch fire the way it would have had to to justify the expense involved in maintaining a fully-staffed presence so far from Globaleye’s Dubai headquarters.

“We looked not only at the business we were doing down there, but also at what our contemporaries there were doing, and I just didn’t feel it fitted in with our strategy going forward,” Searle added. “Our focus is very much to remain very strong in the Middle East, and to expand into Asia. Latin America, sitting off to one side, didn’t seem to fit. So for the time being, we’re leaving.”

The company employed 14 staff in São Paolo, some of whom will look to relocate to other Globaleye offices, with others remaining in Brazil.

Globaleye will continue to look after existing clients in Brazil, as it does throughout the world, and has the advantage of two native Brazilians working in it Dubai administrative office, Searle said.

In Shanghai, meanwhile, Globaleye’s new office – its third in Asia – is located in the Citigroup Tower in Shanghai’s Pudong district, on the east side of the Huangpu River. It is being headed up by Julian Unsworth, who has moved to Shanghai from Globaleye’s Dubai office, where he was a vice president, and initially will have a staff of around four advisers.

‘Difficult’

Globaleye’s new Shanghai office makes it the latest in a still-small but growing number of advisory companies that cater mainly for British expatriates in the city. Among them are the deVere Group, which has an office in Shanghai’s Puxi district (as well as offices in Beijing and Hong Kong); Hong Kong-based, Asia-focused Platinum Financial Services; and the Singapore-based Henley Group, which entered the Shanghai market last year.

Austen Morris Associates is another Asia-based, expat-focused firm with a Shanghai presence. 

All these companies cater for a large and still-growing number of expatriates who are being posted to Shanghai and elsewhere in Mainland China to look after their own multi-national companies’ forays into the Chinese market.

Searle said that in retrospect, Shanghai was “probably one of the most difficult” markets he has ever set up an office in, due to a combination of factors including the language differences, the distances involved, and the need to get the regulatory structure set up properly before getting started.

“We can’t just go and wing it and see what happens, our size demands that we do things properly. Our Team, our providers and most importantly, the clients have come to expect this,” he explained.

He is, however, undaunted by China’s much-publicised recent slow-down, saying that “things are going to start coming back” soon, driven by the country’s large and industrialising population and its appetite for goods and services.

22 million people

With a population of more than 22 million, Shanghai is China’s largest city by population, as well as one of the world’s largest. It is considered the country’s main financial and business hub, while also a growing tourist destination.

In September it moved up to fifth place, ahead of Tokyo (with which it had been tied for fifth place) on the Global Financial Centres Index, behind London, New York, Hong Kong and Singapore. The GFCI is compiled twice a year by London-based Z/Yen Group.

A measure of the growth in the number of expatriates now living in Shanghai may be seen in the number of British independent schools that have set up there. These include Dulwich College, which opened its doors there in 2003, and also has a campus in Beijing; and Nord Anglia Education, which has two British International schools in the city now.

Harrow, the London boys’ school known for educating Winston Churchill and Lord Byron, has a co-ed operation in Beijing, and is opening a mixed-sex boarding and day school in Hong Kong later this year. 

To find out more about Globaleye read this month's International Adviser Intermediary Profile