Last month, in the wake of the appointment of Hong Kong’s new leader, the city’s securities regulator, the Securities & Futures Commission, issued a statement on the listing of infrastructure project companies, particularly in relation to the Belt and Road initiative. read
To many, the 85% collapse in the share price of China Huishan Dairy Holdings Co on March 24 came as a complete surprise. With now all of the company’s non-executive directors having tendered their resignations (in the process also effectively wiping out Huishan’s audit committee), the company’s key treasury executive still missing, and the controlling shareholder seemingly heading for the exit amid talk of margin calls, the milk producer’s short stint as a public company increasingly looks like a horror story. read
The CEO of HKEX may be keen for Saudi Aramco to list in Hong Kong but as I explain, there are more reasons for the Saudi oil giant to bypass the city’s exchange than to pick it for a listing. read
Or so the saying goes. Not in China, it seems. read
The recent news that UBS was being investigated by Hong Kong’s SFC in connection with its work as IPO sponsor in the city has taken the local financial community by storm, not least because of the very real possibility that the firm may loose its corporate finance licence – at least for a period of time. read
Last week’s news was all about Goldman Sachs and Bank of America materially trimming their investment banking platforms in Asia, as margins for bulge bracket houses in the region have gradually eroded in the face of intense competition by Chinese brokers. read
Having left investment banking a while ago, I’m baffled by the increasingly arcane and complex rules that now plague the business — the Chinese Mainland being a particular case in point. read
Another week, another financial sector IPO in Hong Kong. So far this year, three such listings have come to market in the city, for a total of more than $2.6bn equivalent. Most notably, these have included IPOs by Bank of Tianjin ($948m) and China Zheshang Bank ($1.7bn), both of which priced their offerings near the bottom end of the indicative price range last week. read
In December, I reviewed the disappointing volumes last year for primary equity issuance in Southeast Asia, and wondered whether 2016 could be the year when ECM bankers who cover the region become busy again. With the Chinese bourses now in free fall, the authorities there repeatedly depreciating the Yuan in a bid to prop up the economy, and an extension of the ban on equity sales by large investors in Shanghai and Shenzhen, market participants could indeed well turn their attention down South again. read
Hong Kong IPO issuance has seen healthy volumes so far this year. At US$68.3 billion, according to Dealogic, new listings on HKEx have already reached the level achieved for the entire year in 2014. The outcome of deals, however, remains heavily dependent on cornerstone investors, while oversized syndicates have sadly been back in full force since at least late spring. read
