23 Comments
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Jason Leonard's avatar

Visited over ten years ago and still dreaming of the dim sum I had there!

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Inverteum Capital's avatar

HK food is amazing!

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Ian Chew's avatar

Interesting. Definitely gonna have to visit HK then

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Inverteum Capital's avatar

HK is a great place to visit!

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Aalim Azeez Ur Rehman's avatar

Agreed! The financial system is more sophisticated than the likes of UAE and Singapore!

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Inverteum Capital's avatar

💯 - not surprising as HK is the premier financial hub for world's second largest economy, China

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Anton's avatar

​Hong Kong's unique blend of safety, advanced infrastructure, and international accessibility makes it an ideal base for living and investing. The city's status as a global financial hub is further bolstered by its investor-friendly tax policies, robust legal system, and proximity to Mainland China, offering unparalleled opportunities for business and cultural engagement.

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Inverteum Capital's avatar

Agreed!

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Critical Conditions's avatar

So how does a Westerner plant a flag in HK?

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Inverteum Capital's avatar

In terms of visas, the HK government has introduced the Top Talent Pass scheme: https://www.immd.gov.hk/eng/services/visas/TTPS.html

You just need a bachelor's degree from one of ~200 universities around the world and 3 years work experience in the last 5 years to qualify. Full list of universities: https://www.immd.gov.hk/pdf/aggregate_list.pdf

You don't need to have a job offer in HK to be eligible. You can move here first and have 2 years to look for a job and apply for a working visa.

HK also has investment visa options and other types of working visas, but this visa is probably the easiest for a working professional to qualify for.

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Critical Conditions's avatar

Thank you, good information.

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Inverteum Capital's avatar

The Hong Kong-Shenzhen-Guangzhou megalopolis has been named the world's top-ranked innovation hub in the 2025 Global Innovation Index, surpassing Tokyo (#2) and SF Bay Area (#3), according to the World Intellectual Property Organization's latest report. https://www.thestandard.com.hk/hong-kong-news/article/310471/Shenzhen-HK-Guangzhou-cluster-ranked-1st-in-Global-Innovation-Index

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Inverteum Capital's avatar

The number of companies registered in HK has hit a record high 1.5 million! https://hongkongfp.com/2025/07/18/official-data-show-record-high-company-registration-figures-in-hong-kong/

In a city of 7.5 million people, that's one company for every five residents.

In other words, more and more people are recognizing what we've known all along.

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Ando's avatar

After going to your website, I call BS on your “closed to new investors fund” based on “ long-short algorithmic strategies to generate returns in both bull and bear markets”. Pretty sure you just employ these monikers to build credibility. PROVE ME WRONG.

AI could have given me that info, and I could have reshaped it slightly just like you did.

Also I question:

“The 2019 Protests and National Security Law: A Necessary Reset”…why necessary? Why deny the right for people to decide their future just so already fat people like you can make more money?

“One Country, Two Systems is Here to Stay”….really? Says who? We all know the communist can change their mind on a dime. 2047 is milestone date, and previous promises mean nothing.

In other words, Daddy will decide what and when, and change the demos to eradicate the differences in education and sociocultural differences is at FULL STEAM AHEAD for Daddy’s benefit. The identity being erased is the long term goal for so called “stability”, with the great replacement at break neck speed.

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Inverteum Capital's avatar

Well, we are closed to new investors, and we do use long-short algorithmic strategies to generate returns in bull and bear markets. These are the facts.

If you haven't noticed, this Substack is 100% free, meant solely to inform the world about our perspective. There is no option to even pledge a subscription, let alone buy anything.

The 2019 protests in HK were a direct result of an ineffective SAR government, stymied by democratically elected lawmakers who blocked policies to improve social welfare. As a direct result of democratic elections, HK's social problems (e.g. unaffordable housing) festered, and eventually, people took to the streets.

Since the government has been able to function again (due to the implementation of the National Security Law), private housing costs have dropped nearly 30%, even as the population has grown, because of increased public and private housing supply.

China benefits from One Country, Two Systems as well. Due to the RMB's limited convertibility and Beijing's capital controls, China needs HK as its globally oriented financial center and its window to the world, as well as a safe place to put its assets. HK has no capital controls and is the only place on Chinese soil where Chinese companies can raise capital from outside of China. That's valuable to Beijing.

In short, China needs Hong Kong to be Hong Kong for its own pragmatic reasons.

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Dragon Invest's avatar

With Luckin Coffee entering Hong Kong. I think Hong Kong is definitely the best place to live haha. if you’re interested in my Luckin Coffee analysis then please check out my post on it

https://dragoninvest.substack.com/p/restaurant-analysis-series-part-1?r=53xvwu

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Inverteum Capital's avatar

Upon reading your Luckin Coffee analysis, it is clear that they've tailored their business model to suit the Chinese consumer. Smaller stores with minimal seating designed for takeout orders means a lower cost structure compared with Starbucks, which largely imported its US model of a "third place" for people to spend time. Luckin's model allows it to pass the savings onto the consumer and is clearly more suited to the cost sensitive Chinese consumer.

In terms of targeting cost-sensitive consumers and selling cheaper products, the contrast between Luckin and Starbucks could be analogous to Pinduoduo and Alibaba in e-commerce.

Obviously, when it comes to the business model, the key difference between e-commerce and coffee shops is that PDD can offer an enormous variety of products. PDD can draw a consumer in with a very cheap, "loss leader" product and pretty soon, given the massive product selection on PDD, the consumer finds themselves buying products from PDD to suit all of their lifestyle needs. Once people get addicted to the app, PDD can sell more products with better margins than the initial loss leader. This allows PDD to build a high volume business with decent margins, which is what has propelled the stock price.

At this point, I don't see a similar "loss leader" + wallet share expansion strategy for Luckin, though that could change in the future.

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Dragon Invest's avatar

I don’t think that Luckin even wants to replicate the Starbucks strategy because there’s simply too much competition within that space internationally as well as domestically in China with very high costs as well. Luckin’s strategy is well suited for expansion into ASEAN, Hong Kong, The Middle East and India where consumers usually chase value, it’s easier to scale, and where competition is usually low. Actually I think it’s wrong to even assume that I’m comparing Luckin to Starbucks. Starbucks is struggling because of its own business faults not Luckin. Starbucks prices a single latte at 33 RMB which is in the price range of Manner and M Stand.

Luckin competes with Cotti Coffee and other budget coffee franchises and in that space Luckin has proven to be the Alibaba vs Cotti’s Pinduoduo. Cotti operates at massive net losses to undercut Luckin by 1-2 RMB while Luckin has said that they will stray away from the price competition and discounting and focus more on their innovative collaborations like the ones with Moutai.

I think you might’ve just given my article a surface level read because I’ve covered all these points in my post

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Dragon Invest's avatar

Cotti has also been aggressively expanding like PDD planning to add 40,000 stores this year while Luckin’s expansion has been more tempered so yeah I consider it to be the Alibaba of the Chinese coffee market while Manner and M Stand are more of Farfetch or Tienmao (T Mall)

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Inverteum Capital's avatar

Okay, we will see how your thesis plays out over the next few years.

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Dragon Invest's avatar

Yeah fair enough

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