CHINESE investors are increasing their focus on Coventry and Warwickshire as a potential centre for investment.
Investors from China are increasingly coming in to the West Midlands and the UK. They have even taken over the region’s favourite football clubs, including Birmingham, Aston Villa, Wolves and West Brom.
The most favoured sector for Chinese investment in the UK is property – accounting for 44 per cent of the value of deals between 2012 and the middle of last year.
Chinese investors also have 28 per cent for the consumer sector, 8 per cent for financial services, seven per cent in oil and gas and five per cent in healthcare, according to UK investment bank Grisons Peak.
And it is estimated the country will have invested £100 billion in UK infrastructure by 2025 – according to Craig Humphrey of CWLEP Growth Hub.
With this in mind, Chinese business leaders visited the area and met with various firms, decision makers and business organisations to explore investment opportunities.
Mr Humphrey said: “There were a mix of managing directors, vice presidents, chair-people and owners of large corporations and they are all very interested in this region – Coventry, Warwickshire and the wider Midlands Engine area is seen as a very strong place to invest.
“Over the past couple of years, we have really seen this interest grow – we are speaking to potential Chinese investors all the time and when it gets very serious, they want to come out into the market and see the opportunities in the flesh.
“We’ve worked with companies already in this area which have benefitted from Chinese investment and the feedback from this visit has already been extremely positive.”
Part of the visit included a tour of Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal (DIRFT) – after potential investors indicated they were interested in the logistics and e-commerce sectors.
Gareth Edwards, the logistics lead for the CWLEP Growth Hub, said: “With the increased growth in logistics and, in particular e-commerce, the Midlands offers significant opportunities for businesses to invest and it is great that this delegation chose to visit this area.”
