Horst Geicke
Quick Facts
Biography
Horst Joachim Franz Geicke (born 1955 in Hamburg) is a German-born entrepreneur, investor, and official in Asia. He is currently building the Deutsches Haus Ho Chi Minh Stadt as chairman and Investor. Geicke studied Business Administration and Business Law at the University of Hamburg and moved to Hong Kong in 1981 to be an entrepreneur with export-oriented manufacturing companies in China. Later, he focused on investments, particularly in real estate along Richard Li. He also founded VinaCapital Investment Management, Euro Auto (BMW Vietnam), and the Pacific Alliance Group (PAG). He is known as an early investor in China as well as in Vietnam and with this expertise mentioned in newspapers. In 2015 he was ranked 270 of the richest Germans by Manager Magazin. Today, Geicke is primarily known as CEO and Investor of the Deutsches Haus Ho Chi Minh City. The building complex which is scheduled to be completed by 2017 consists of two towers with an estimated investment of €100 million. It was initiated under a bilateral government agreement between Germany and Vietnam. This centrally located property had been purchased in 1960 by the German government. Geicke then acquired the property from the German federal government, which was originally intended for “diplomatic purposes” in Ho Chi Minh city against initial resistance of the Vietnamese party bureaucracy and by negotiating with the German federal ministries. Geicke had previously acquired federal property in Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, Geicke was president of the German and European Chamber of Commerce and is currently vice chairman or board member of these and other organizations.In Vietnam, he founded the VinaCapital Foundation which is engaged in the social sector, such as the financing of cardiac surgery as a late consequence of the Vietnam War (“Heartbeat Vietnam”).