- Despite China's strict lockdown, global investment banks are pushing ahead with ambitious expansion plans in Shanghai, the Financial Times reports.
- Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) and JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) are among the banks to have moved staff from Hong Kong to Shanghai in recent weeks. They are also part of a group, including Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C), UBS Group AG (NYSE:UBS), Credit Suisse Group AG (NYSE:CS), and Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE:DB), to have committed Shanghai as a target for significant investment.
- The lockdown entering its fourth week forced the banks to make emergency food deliveries to some staff and leave others camped out on trading floors.
- In recent years, the Wall Street banks have deepened their push into Shanghai, hiring hundreds of staff, as Beijing has gradually opened up China's financial services industry and capital markets.
- The government has laid out plans to make China's most populated city a global financial hub by 2035 and transform Shanghai's stock exchange into the world's largest.
- Since the lockdown, China saw several initial public offerings on Shanghai's stock exchange.
- A Chinese analyst was not convinced about the feasibility of the investments amid the Covid lockdown that prevented the banks' senior managers from entering China or meeting people for two or three years.
- Investors' concern at the threat of prolonged lockdowns has sent China's most extensive stock index CSI 300, down by almost a fifth in 2022.
- Price Action: GS shares closed lower by 1.98% at $334.32 on Thursday.
