港交所放宽上市规则以争夺IPO资源

Hong Kong stock exchange relaxes listing rules to compete with US rivals
Hong Kong’s stock exchange is relaxing its listing standards as it seeks to remain competitive with US and Chinese rivals in a move that risks lowering the city’s reputation for corporate governance.
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, the city’s sole bourse operator, said on Friday it would allow dual-class share structures that give some shareholders greater voting rights, as well as permit confidential IPO filings for all companies.
Katherine Ng, head of listing at HKEX, said the changes were a “major step in enhancing the flexibility and diversity of Hong Kong’s listing regime”.
The changes, first outlined in a consultation paper in March, are part of a broader effort by HKEX to remain globally competitive even as its business becomes increasingly dominated by Chinese companies and US exchanges attract ever more global listings.
“Competition among exchanges — for both IPOs and liquidity — is clearly intensifying,” said Lyndon Chao, managing director of Asia Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association’s equities and post-trade division.
However, some of the moves by HKEX — such as its relaxation of rules around voting rights — drew sharply different responses from the city’s financial industry.
Bankers welcomed the changes, noting that they brought Hong Kong’s regulatory regime closer to those of US exchanges such as Nasdaq, where dual-class structures are common and any company can file anonymously for an initial public offering.
Corporate governance advocates raised concerns around the reforms to voting rights, which include allowing smaller companies to use a structure that gives some shareholders more influence over corporate decisions than others.
“If you allow more weighted voting rights issuers to Hong Kong, especially smaller ones, that will be shifting the governance risks to retail shareholders,” said Lake Wang, research head for Greater China at the Asian Corporate Governance Association.
Wang said Hong Kong lacked class-action lawsuits that gave US retail investors a way to litigate against listed companies.
Whether Hong Kong’s new rules allow the city to compete with the US for more global listings remains unclear.
Although the territory has made a number of announcements about luring more non-Chinese companies, they remain the core of its capital markets.
Chinese companies accounted for more than 98 per cent of the $32.4bn raised in Hong Kong IPOs this year, according to Bloomberg data.
In 2011, that figure stood at just 61.5 per cent as Hong Kong won listings from global businesses such as Prada, Samsonite and Glencore.
Although Hong Kong listings have continued to rise, the city has missed out on some enormous IPOs from Chinese companies.
They include China Resources New Energy’s $3.6bn float in Shenzhen, and chipmaker CXMT, which is raising nearly $10bn in Shanghai on Monday in what will be China’s largest IPO since 2010.
“There’s a very strong sense of fear of missing out, of not attracting these China-based companies to Hong Kong,” said Wang.
HKEX also confirmed it would proceed with a “name and shame” regime aimed at stemming the flow of poor-quality paperwork in listing applications.
Under the new system, the names of all parties involved in an incomplete listing application, including sponsoring banks and involved law firms, will be published online by the exchange.