HONG KONG (BLOOMBERG) – When UBS Group AG chief executive officer Sergio Ermotti arrived in Hong Kong for a board meeting on a quiet Sunday morning in September, the city had already seen 14 weeks of increasingly violent protests. That evening, demonstrators shattered the calm yet again.

About 3km from the Four Seasons hotel where Mr Ermotti was staying, protesters lobbed petrol bombs and started a massive fire outside a subway station. Police countered with tear gas and water cannons.

But by Monday morning, the streets were cleared and Hong Kong was back to business. Mr Ermotti largely stuck to his itinerary, avoiding areas flagged by the firm’s security team, a person familiar with the matter said.

UBS’ board meeting took place as scheduled and the firm hosted more than 200 clients and business leaders in a Four Seasons ballroom. There, over canapes, cocktails and Peking duck, Mr Ermotti pledged that the Swiss bank would stay committed to Hong Kong.

Almost four months of protests have turned parts of Hong Kong into battle zones on weekends and holidays, wreaked havoc on the tourism industry and sent the US$360 billion (S$500 billion) economy hurtling toward recession. Yet for all the chaos, the city has shown a remarkable ability to carry on with its role as one of the world’s premier financial and commercial hubs.

The work week continues largely uninterrupted for most big companies, which have found ways to sidestep transport disruptions and pockets of violence. Their willingness, for now at least, to stick with Hong Kong during its biggest political crisis since the 1997 handover to China underscores the city’s importance as a gateway to Asia’s largest economy.

Even as speculation grows that Chinese leaders will gradually sideline Hong Kong and elevate mainland financial centres in Shanghai and Shenzhen, the former British colony’s advantages will be tough to match.

Hong Kong is a key market “both in its own right, as an entry point to China and to facilitate the cross-border business out of China”, Mr Ermotti said in an e-mailed response to questions from Bloomberg.

Among Hong Kong’s biggest draws is an independent legal system that allows for the free flow of capital and information, something that’s still lacking in mainland China.

Investment banks such as UBS, Goldman Sachs Group, and Morgan Stanley book large chunks of their China-related revenue in Hong Kong because they use the city to trade, finance and advise Chinese clients with overseas operations.

About US$16 billion of initial public offerings originated from Hong Kong this year, mostly involving mainland Chinese firms.

Even as some smaller companies have reconsidered Hong Kong fund-raising plans, Budweiser Brewing Company APAC went ahead with a US$5 billion listing last month, the world’s second-biggest IPO this year behind Uber Technologies.

Around the same time, international money managers flocked to Hong Kong for one of Asia’s most important investment confabs, the SuperReturn Asia Private Equity Conference. Total attendance, at about 800, was little changed from previous years, said Ms Dorothy Kelso, global head of SuperReturn.

Many attendees said they simply scheduled their arrivals for times when their commutes from the airport were least likely to be disrupted by demonstrations.

“For people who are truly serious and committed to China, the protests do not deter important business meetings,” said Mr Johan Riddergard, a Singapore-based partner at Venturous Group, one of the top sponsors of the SuperReturn conference.

Global investors are taking their cues partly from Hong Kong’s pragmatic residents, who have mostly continued to show up for work whether they have taken part in protests or steered clear of them on weekends and holidays.

That remained true even after the city ground to a standstill on Tuesday (Oct 1), when escalating violence on the 70th anniversary of communist rule in China led the police to shoot a demonstrator for the first time.

The next day, commuters headed back to their offices, financial markets operated normally and – barring a few delays – the city’s famously efficient transportation system was up and running. The MSCI Hong Kong Index of local shares rose 0.3 per cent, bucking regional declines.

Businessmen that count on Hong Kong are learning to cope with the new normal. Mr Lu Jianfeng, chairman of artificial intelligence startup Wiz Holding, missed his flight after being stuck in traffic for hours in a cab during a September visit when protesters unexpectedly descended on a neighbourhood he was passing through.

But he returned for meetings with investors only a few weeks later, arriving on a Friday and leaving at the end of the day. “I made sure my schedule was super compact,” he said.

The risk, of course, is that the unrest escalates to the point that international businesses and investors start to lose patience with the city. For companies, maintaining a presence in Hong Kong also means navigating an increasingly fraught political environment.

Cathay Pacific Airways came under fire from Chinese authorities after some of its employees joined the protests, with officials demanding that those workers be banned from flying over and into China. In August, the airline announced the resignation of its British-born chief executive officer, Mr Rupert Hogg. Cathay Pacific’s stock has tumbled 15 per cent since mid-July.

For now though, global companies are finding it difficult to bypass the city. EY, better known as Ernst & Young, recently shifted a global management meeting from Hong Kong to London because of the protests, people familiar with the matter said.

But the company is still hoping to hold a meeting in Hong Kong at a later stage because the city is a major hub for its business, the people said. An EY representative declined to comment.

Hong Kong’s efforts to work around the unrest have at times made for some striking scenes.

On a recent Sunday, construction workers with bulldozers and other heavy machinery made progress on a large-scale renovation of the city’s landmark Hutchison House, part of the real estate empire built by billionaire Li Ka Shing. Work continued apace atop the building, even as a mass of protesters mobbed the streets around it.

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