- HNA Group’s investments in Hilton Hotels and other cross-border investments;
- Alibaba’s NYSE IPO and investments in the U.S., China and Southeast Asia;
- Didi Chuxing’s acquisition of Uber China;
- SoftBank’s acquisition of Fortress and ARM Holdings and its sale of Supercell to Tencent;
- LINE’s NYSE IPO;
- Samsung’s acquisition of HARMAN;
- Ant Financial’s proposed acquisition of MoneyGram;
- Takata’s airbag recall; and
- Nikon’s litigation against ASML and others.
George Sard, Chairman and CEO of SVC, and Paul Verbinnen, President, said, “We have been actively engaged with clients in Asia for many years and a number of them have encouraged us to establish a formal presence there. Having a senior SVC team on the ground in Asia is increasingly important to them and to our goal of providing seamless global service around the clock to help our clients solve their most complex issues. We could not be more delighted that Ron Low has relocated and that Rick Carew has joined our team to start our seventh office and second outside the United States.”
Said Ron Low, “I’m excited about this opportunity to be closer to our Asian clients and to welcome Rick to SVC. We are committed to bringing the same level of strategic advice, execution and service that clients and fellow advisors expect from our firm.”
Said Rick Carew, “As a former business editor covering Asia’s most significant corporate events, I have always been impressed by the caliber of SVC’s team and recognized the need for the sophisticated services they provide in Asia. There is a growing demand in the region for communications advisors who are global in their approach and capabilities, but also possess a deep local understanding of the markets that clients are navigating.”
Hong Kong Office Bios
Before joining SVC as a Managing Director, Mr. Carew was the Asia Finance and Deals Editor for The Wall Street Journal based in Hong Kong, where he led the paper’s coverage of finance, investments and M&A across the region. A fluent mandarin Chinese speaker, his nearly decade-long career in journalism was spent in China and Hong Kong, where he also served as The Wall Street Journal’s Asia M&A reporter and a Beijing correspondent for Dow Jones Newswires. He was also previously a Senior Researcher at a New York-based investment firm.
Mr. Low is a Managing Director and 11-year veteran of SVC. He provides strategic communications counsel to high-profile Asian-based clients as they make investments and grow their businesses in North America and Europe, as well as multinational companies expanding their international operations in Asia. He also has extensive crisis communications experience, working closely with Boards of Directors and management teams to effectively manage a wide range of complex situations, including regulatory investigations, financial and accounting restatements, cyber incidents and operational accidents.
SVC’s Hong Kong office will be located in One International Financial Center and the office information is +852 3899 6630 and SVC-HongKong@sardverb.com.
About SVC
SVC is a leading international strategic communications consultancy known for its successful work on many of the highest profile and most challenging communications engagements across all industries. For nearly 25 years, SVC has consistently ranked among the top M&A communications advisory firms. SVC was named “PR firm of the Year” in 2014 and 2015 by M&A Advisor and, in 2016, the firm was named the #1 M&A advisory firm in North America by volume (Mergermarket), a distinction it has maintained in 2017. The firm is advising on numerous recent transactions, including Becton Dickinson’s pending acquisition of C.R. Bard, Samsung’s acquisition of HARMAN, Bayer’s pending acquisition of Monsanto, British American Tobacco’s pending acquisition of Reynolds American, and Qualcomm’s pending acquisition of NXP Semiconductors. SVC also advised Alibaba on the biggest IPO in history and LINE on its IPO, one of the largest of 2016. The firm has helped to manage hundreds of activist defense assignments including United Airlines against a threatened proxy contest and Herbalife in its defense against a short-selling campaign. Recognized by Bloomberg Businessweek as “Wall Street’s go to crisis firm,” SVC’s crisis practice also spans major global product recalls, including Takata air bags, the largest product recall in history, cyber breaches, environmental and regulatory challenges, litigation support and more. SVC’s capabilities include media and investor relations, research and market intelligence, governance advisory, as well as video, social media and digital marketing. The firm has full-service offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, London and Hong Kong. For more information, visit www.sardverb.com.
