Dutch giant Royal Philips Electronics NV plans to move its Singapore regional headquarters to Hong Kong to save costs and be near China, its biggest Asian market, a newspaper reported yesterday.
Starting in August, Philips will consolidate all its Asia-Pacific headquarter activities in Hong Kong, which currently oversees North Asia, sources told The Business Times.
Philips was reported to have moved its regional treasury functions out of the city-state recently, transferring its dealing activities to the Netherlands and the regional finance function to Hong Kong.
The move to Hong Kong is "more because of cost duplication, having to run two regional headquarters in Asia," a company source was quoted as saying.
One of the largest multinationals in the city-state, Philips has five manufacturing plants, a sales organization and various global and regional competence centres based here.
While the move to Hong Kong affects only the corporate headquarters and will affect no more than 20 staff, Philips has been laying off manufacturing staff.
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