Hong Kong tops the new league table, with 68.2% of international companies surveyed by CBRE represented there, the study, Business Footprints, reveals.
Singapore, with 67.5% of the companies surveyed saying they had a presence there, comes a close second to Hong Kong, followed by Tokyo, where 63.9% of the companies surveyed said they had an office.
London, the only Western city to make the Business Footprints top five, comes in at fourth place globally.
The top five is completed by Shanghai, which, the report’s authors note, is increasingly adopting the role of financial and business capital of China. (See table, below.)
The 56-page CBRE study, which may be downloaded here, analyses the office locations of 280 of the world’s largest companies across 232 cities.
Low taxes, role as ‘gateway’
Among the reasons for Hong Kong’s appeal is that it boasts the world’s third- lowest tax regime globally, with its maximum corporation tax of 16.5%, maximum personal income tax of 15%, and no sales tax or VAT, according to CBRE.
It also benefits from the combined impact of rapid growth in mainland China’s major markets, easy access to other major Asian economies, and Asia’s "world-leading emergence from the global recession", which have enabled it to "act as a gateway between East and West, with access to a skilled, varied and often low-cost workforce for international businesses", CBRE notes.
NY, London ‘still top in finance’
Separately, the continued importance of New York City and London in the international banking and finance sector ensures that they tie for the top spot on a separate league table included in the CBRE study that ranks cities based on the number of companies in several key industries who have offices in them.
After London and New York, in descending order, the other cities on the CBRE study’s business and financial services table are Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Paris, Frankfurt, Shanghai, Milan, Sydney and Toronto.
Hong Kong and London tie for the title of most important city in the media, technology and telecoms secotr, while London is first and Hong Kong second in professional services, and Singapore is first and Hong Kong second in industrial goods and services.
| Rank | City | Number of companies | % of companies present in city |
| 1 | Hong Kong | 191 | 68.2% |
| 2 | Singapore | 189 | 67.5% |
| 3 | Tokyo | 179 | 63.9% |
| 4 | London | 177 | 63.2% |
| 5 | Shanghai | 172 | 61.4% |
| 6 | Moscow | 170 | 60.7% |
| 7 | Beijing | 169 | 60.4% |
| 8 | Madrid | 167 | 59.6% |
| 9 | Dubai | 157 | 56.1% |
| 10 | Paris | 156 | 55.7% |
| 11 | New York | 155 | 55.4% |
| 12 | Warsaw | 150 | 53.6% |
| 13 | Milan | 147 | 53.5% |
| 14 | Sao Paulo | 146 | 52.1% |
| 15 | Bankok | 137 | 48.9% |
