Political and Economic Risk Consultancy, Ltd.- PERC

20/F, Central Tower
28 Queen's Road, Central, Hong Kong
Mailing Address: G.P.O. Box 1342, Hong Kong
Tel: (852) 2541 4088 Fax: (852) 2815 5032

About Political & Economic Risk Consultancy, Ltd.

Page Index:

PERC Organization | Experience | Publications | Senior Management |

PERC Organization:

Established in 1976, Political & Economic Risk Consultancy is headquartered in Hong Kong. From this office,  PERC coordinates a team of researchers and analysts in the ASEAN countries, Greater China and South Korea. Some of the world's leading corporations and financial institutions regularly use PERC's services to assess key trends and critical issues shaping the region, to identify growth opportunities, and to develop effective strategies for capitalizing on these opportunities.

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Experience:

Although a wide range of companies use our services, the focus of our research is very much a niche: We help companies understand how politics and other subjective variables are shaping the business environment in individual Asian countries, the interlinkages between countries and the people of the region, and how Asia is interfacing with other parts of the world. Such variables may be difficult to quantify, but nevertheless can have a critical impact on investment performance and therefore have to be factored into the decision-making process, which is the function of our services. Our value lies in our experience, our Asian network of seasoned analysts, our emphasis on primary research, our ability to network with risk analysts covering other parts of the world, our complete independence from any vested interest groups, our technical capabilities, our discretion, and our integrated, regional approach to analysis. We have included here a short list of some of our projects in order to give you an idea of the focus and range of our work:

·         We currently have a research team in Myanmar studying how conditions are changing and assessing the potential for different infrastructure and resource industries, as well as for developing the tourism, hotel and travel industries. 

·         We recently finished researching  growing economic links between Latin America and Asia and risks involved with Asian direct investments in different mining and infrastructure projects in Latin America.

·         One of the more interesting projects we did last year was for a major sovereign wealth fund that was investing in state-owned companies in other countries.  This put an entirely new spin on the concept of “sovereign risk” and calculating a “sovereign risk premium” which was the focus of this project .

·         We have just finished a country risk assessment of Cambodia for a company with significant exposure to that country.  The analysis is part of a stock exchange listing requirement the company needs to fulfill, namely, to present on a regular basis an independent assessment of country risks for its main institutional investors.

·         We recently partnered with a number of other political analysts to develop scenarios assessing the implications of a radical political change in North Korea for other countries in the Asian region.  This is typical of the scenario planning work PERC’s does – helping clients envision and plan for different futures, identify important signposts that indicate directional change, and monitoring those signposts on a regular basis. 

·         Several law agencies, multilateral institutions, and government agencies retain PERC to measure changing perceptions on such issues as corruption.  We assess how perceptions are changing over time in individual countries and how perceptions compare between countries, and how corruption compares between different regions, industries and government departments in individual countries. 

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Publications

Besides customized consulting, PERC also offers several published products.

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Senior Management:

Robert Broadfoot is the founder and Managing Director of Political & Economic Risk Consultancy, Ltd. A US citizen, Mr. Broadfoot graduated with honors in economics from Oberlin College in the United States in 1972. He has lived in Hong Kong since 1975. Beside coordinating PERC s overall operations, Mr. Broadfoot is directly responsible for managing PERC's research and consulting involving mainland China and the Greater China region. In addition to overseeing PERC's primary research, Mr. Broadfoot facilitates customized scenario-planning programs for companies to help them understand the parameters of uncertainty they face, the interlinkages of risks within and between countries, and signposts they should be aware of to gain a competitive advantage by recognizing changes in the environment. His analysis of Asian developments is regularly quoted by such publications as the Asian Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, as well as by such TV stations as CNN, CNBC and Bloomberg.   He is a contributing author to a new book called China Into the Future – Making Sense of the World’s Most Dynamic Economy, which was published by John Wiley & Sons in 2008 and is available from Amazon.com as well as major bookstores.

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