Hong Kong is a gold mine for Taiwanese firms

City gets US$47.4 billion in Taiwanese investments.

A report released by China Credit Information Service late last week shows that Taiwan's top 100 firms derive 85% of revenue from China and Hong Kong. In 11 Asian markets, the top 100 Taiwanese conglomerates identified mainland China as their No. 1 market with total sales of US$372.8 billion followed by Hong Kong with US$47.4 billion. These two markets accounted for 85.8% of their revenues in Asia.

Taiwan's top 100 conglomerates had a total of 7,668 subsidiaries and branches in 2012, up 1.78% from on-year. These firms had combined revenue of US$830.3 billion, up 5.4%, and assets amounting to US$2.12 trillion, a rise of 5.3%.

Analysts said China is an important market for these Taiwanese businesses, but is not their only market. Taiwan's exports to Southeast Asia enjoyed high growth after the global financial crisis in 2008 as the government encouraged local enterprises to invest in the region.

Of the top 10, seven are in the financial industry, whose net profit ratio was higher than that of technology companies.