JUNEASIA BUSINESS OUTLOOK8NEWSROOMHONG KONG LAND HOLDINGS TO OPEN MULTIPLE RETAIL DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS IN CHINAUBS TO CONCLUDE CREDIT SUISSE ACQUISITIONHong kong Land Holdings stated that it intends to launch 10 retail developments in seven cities across China during the following five years, raising the nation's total number of commercial projects to 17. According to a statement released, the cities will be Chongqing, Chengdu, Wuhan, Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, and Suzhou. The new developments will also add 280,000 square metres of retail floor space to its China portfolio. Additionally, Hong kong Land announced that it would start selling the upscale waterfront apartments later this year after completing the $8 billion West Bund Financial Hub development in Shanghai in three parts through 2027.By the end of 2023, The West Bund Orbit, a significant public art facility, will also open. The West Bund Financial Hub, which was acquired in 2020 with a joint-venture partner, is situated on a 23.1-hectare mixed-use property in the Xuhui district, where the local government intends to establish a new global financial centre. The development is double the size of the company's Central Portfolio in Hong Kong and is the firm's greatest single project investment to date. UBS is expected to complete the acquisition of Credit Suisse, but the process of merging the former rival will be eagerly watched by clients, staff, and Swiss political leaders. Sergio Ermotti, the CEO of UBS, said on Friday that the upcoming months are expected to be `bumpy' and that the merger will bring `waves' of challenging decisions, notably in the personnel area. UBS, the largest bank in the nation, was coerced into a union to keep its rival from failing, but it hasn't waited until Monday to begin making plans to acquire Credit Suisse. But if the schedule holds, Andreas Venditti, a financial analyst with Vontobel, told AFP, "UBS can start to be proactive".UBS has been preparing since the middle of March and already knows what it wants to keep, close, or sell, but until the merger was finalised, "so far they are limited in what they could do", according to Venditti. Technically and politically challenging, the combination of Switzerland's two largest banks will create a megabank beyond anything the country has ever seen. This magnitude has political leaders concerned. However, Thomas Jordan, the head of the Swiss National Bank, claimed that there was no other option. Naturally, it's unfortunate that there is just one (large bank) left. But I am certain that there would have been a global financial crisis if the UBS takeover hadn't been successful", he stated in an interview with the weekly Sonntagszeitung.
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