Mandarin Oriental executives eyeing checkout amid curbs

Mandarin Oriental Hotel chief executive James Riley says the city's stringent control measures have become so unsuitable for work that he is pushing his executive team to work outside of Hong Kong for the time being, reports said.

The group under one of Hong Kong's oldest business empires, Jardine Matheson, operates hotels and properties in more than 20 countries.

But its effort to recover its Hong Kong business from the pandemic has been constrained by the city's strict anti-pandemic measures, including social gathering and travel limitations.

Riley, who recently returned to Hong Kong after 10 months overseas, said it is "infeasible" for the management team to stay in the city, where authorities have closed schools, gyms and restaurants after 6pm to curb a surge in cases.

He told the Financial Times "most of my key senior executives are now traveling or are outside Hong Kong increasingly," adding that his chief operating officer who was based in Hong Kong, left 15 months ago.

To that end, Riley said he has no plan to have the top executive back in Hong Kong because he "can't do anything here."

This came as companies across the world are struggling to run their regional businesses with traveling bans still in place.

Surveys show that many are losing staff in part due to the restrictions, the newspaper said.

"As a base from which to run a business it's very, very poor today," Riley said.

He said recovery is possible when Hong Kong regains freedom of movement.

staff.reporter@singtaonewscom