Hong Kong's Richest 1% Party On During Recession!

[Joanne98]

Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong businessman Dino Sadhwani spends HK$10,000 ($1,290) on a typical, twice-a-week night of dining and partying at the city’s top-end restaurants and clubs. That’s after some belt tightening.

Before the global financial crisis cut the value of his stocks portfolio by 40 percent and reduced his company’s projected sale of hammers and drill bits to the U.S., Sadhwani, 25, would spend up to a third more at exclusive joints like Zuma and China Club. He is also taking one vacation this year, instead of the usual four.

Even with the cutbacks, the dining bill of Hong Kong’s richest 1 percent, such as Sadhwani, remains large enough to keep some of the city’s most expensive eateries going amid the recession, said Nick Debnam, KPMG’s partner in charge of consumer markets in Hong Kong.

“The chunk of the population that eats at these sorts of places once or twice a year is going to disappear,” Glenn Maguire, chief Asia-Pacific economist at Societe Generale SA in Hong Kong, said in an interview. Still, the rich are likely to keep returning to their favorites. “They may, instead of having a holiday, go out for a nice restaurant meal instead.”

Government data show Hong Kong’s restaurant receipts rose 14 percent to HK$20 billion in the three months ended Sept. 30, even as the local benchmark Hang Seng Index fell 18 percent from the preceding quarter as the effect of the U.S. slowdown spreads.

HK$16,888 A-Head Dinner

At Gaddi’s, the French restaurant at The Peninsula, about 40 guests paid HK$16,888 each for a Dec. 18 dinner to celebrate the five-star hotel’s 55th anniversary, according to a spokeswoman.

The price tag, excluding a 10 percent service charge, covered six courses, such as Atlantic blue lobster and slow- roasted venison loin. Each course was paired with a wine of the 1953 vintage, including a Chateau Margaux.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=a__lVqr0kA2E&refer=home

[acmavm]

1. Amazing what some people will pay for their food when so many others

in this world are hungry.