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Hong Kong targets foreign listings

By Hui Ching-hoo and Zhang Jin (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-06-21 09:26

Efforts by Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEx) to attract more foreign companies will not cause harm to mainland companies already listed or considering listing on the bourse, Chairman Ronald Arculli said.

Instead, the move will help enhance Hong Kong's image as an international bourse and will benefit mainland companies on the exchange, the head of operator of the world's second largest listed exchange told China Daily.

"We are widening listing sources from emerging markets. Our senior staff recently traveled to countries like Russia and South Korea to promote the Hong Kong exchange among local businesspeople," he said.

As the world's seventh-largest exchange in terms of capitalization, Hong Kong sees an urgent need to cast its net outside the mainland. Many of the mainland's largest firms have already listed in Hong Kong, but the central government now actively encourages blue-chip firms to list on the mainland.

Mainland firms have raised a total of $190 billion in Hong Kong in the past 10 years. Their capitalization is more than half of the market's total, up from 20 percent 10 years ago.

Last year, theIndustrial and Commercial Bank of China(ICBC) andBank of China'sinitial public offerings (IPOs), which totaled $30 billion, helped the city surpass New York as the world's second-largest IPO market after London.

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But Arculli said the exchange does not want to rely solely on the mainland market. Positioned as China's international market, Hong Kong's edge over Shanghai is its internationalism.

"Hong Kong is an international market. That's our attraction and we have to improve it," he said.

Drawing more foreign companies to list in Hong Kong will also benefit companies already listed, as well as those planning to list, he added.

But widening listing sources does not mean Hong Kong will reduce its attention to mainland market, Arculli said.

The bourse will work closer with its Shanghai counterpart to greet more A+H dual listings.

"Technical hurdles have all been cleared since the ICBC and China CITIC Bank simultaneously floated shares in Shanghai and Hong Kong," he said. "There will be more such listings."

The central government's move to allow foreign bourses to open representative offices on the mainland since July 1 will not affect HKEx's attractiveness to local companies, Arculli said. HKEx opened a representative office on the mainland in 2003 under the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement, a free trade pact between the mainland and Hong Kong.