Li Fung &, Asia's plans to invest in South America

Victor Fung, Chairman of Li Fung &, greater global supplier of clothes and toys to retailers, said the value that the company intends to be "very active" in investment and trade in Brazil and the rest of South America.
The Hong Kong billionaire explained that want to enjoy the "great potential" of the region's business with Asia. Your interest is mainly to have greater weight in the flow of manufactured goods to South America and semiprocessados and commodities to Asia.
"We will be very active in investments and we're opening offices," he said, noting that when he talks about South America, mainly in Brazil.
With fewer sales for the United States and slight slowdown in China, the company suffered 70% drop in profits in the first half. The Hong Kong Group, supplier of big American networks like Walmart, among others, depends on 60% of business with retailers of the United States.
But Victor Fung now see signs of improvement in the u.s. economy and evaluates that China is heading towards a "strong recovery". The manager considers that the objective of growth of 7% will be achieved without problems. And evaluates that reforms announced by the Chinese Communist Party will stimulate the domestic demand, benefiting your business too.
For him, the potential for increasing business between South America and China will remain significant and the use of local currencies, as real and remimbi will grow.
Victor Fung believes that within five years the Chinese currency will be practically convertible, but no official announcement from Beijing-simply by day-to-day activities.
The businessman did not detailed the plans for South America. In any case, the company Li Fung & relied on acquisitions to expand its business, spending $ 3 billion with transactions between 2006 and 2011, according to data from Bloomberg.
This year, the company made five acquisitions. China remains the main production base of the company, even though the clothing manufacturing has increased a lot in Bangladesh.
The family of Victor Fung also invests in joint ventures, like the one that closed with the Italian retailer of women's handbags Furla. This year, the European brand announced it is accelerating the opening of 100 boutiques in China. The plan is that the country will become its main market in five years.
In 2012, the Li Fung & registered total turnover of $ 20.2 billion, virtually the same amount obtained in the previous year, but net income fell 9.4% reaching US $ 617 million.
Victor Fung came to Bali-which hosts since yesterday a ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization, to ask the more Governments liberalizing global trade. In his opinion, the psychological impact of a failure in the negotiations for an agreement between the countries even modest in Bali this week, would be dramatic. Said that the problem is not only with the potential loss of business with the loss of confidence in political leaders, incapable of understanding when the world economy is still fragile.