London will mark the location of HKEX’s second office outside of Asia, after New York. The announcement follows plans to open a European office, shared last year.
The expansion will boost inflows to Hong Kong and mainland China stock markets, but the real game changer will be when mainland investors can invest in secondary-listed Chinese companies in Hong Kong.
Investors should be given credit — carbon credit in particular — when they hold carbon-intensive assets in Asia but aim to help these assets transit. However, regulations also need to stay updated in order to prevent greenwashing.
Pre-commercial companies are subject to a minimum market capitalisation requirement of HK$15 billion ($1.9 billion), while those with annual revenues of HK$250 million are expected to have a capitalisation of at least HK$8 billion at the time of listing.
The listing will be the Indonesian bourse’s third largest, after those of Bukalapak and GoTo. But Blibli may not enjoy the same “hype” as its predecessors, given the instability of tech sector share prices, experts opined. Both firms have seen their share prices drop significantly since IPO.
A primary listing for the e-commerce company in Hong Kong would not only expand Alibaba’s investor base, but also make the tech giant’s share price a better risk barometer for domestic sentiment in China.