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
Readers of this column will be familiar with my occasional ranting about Hong Kong’s cornerstone investor regime, and in particular the doltish six-month lock-up rule which the Singapore Exchange, for one, never saw fit to introduce, and which even Bursa Malaysia ended up ditching, after having initially restricted it to subscriptions representing 5% or more of a company’s share capital. read
On July 27, the HKEx announced that “it was minded to exercise its power” to cancel the listing of China Oriental Group within a period of six months, due to the company’s insufficient public float. This, however, was only the latest step in a rather long saga, which illustrates to a tee not only that the exchange’s minimum free float rule actually serves little purpose, but also how incredibly slowly the regulators can move to make decisions in the city, thereby hurting both institutional and retail investors. read
Just a few weeks apart, announcements were recently made by the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (HKEX) and Singapore’s SGX respectively about changes to front line regulatory functions they perform. The approaches under these proposals couldn’t have been more different. read
One of the enduring mysteries of IPOs remains the all-elusive institutional investor allocation process. I once heard a hedge fund manager describe it as the method through which you can receive as many shares as you want, in deals that are sure to tank in the aftermarket, and, conversely, as few as possible, in hot, oversubscribed transactions that outperform after the start of trading. read
As the US$100bn-plus IPO of Saudi Aramco nears its launch, the UK’s Telegraph has most recently hinted at a three-way foreign listing, conducted across London, New York and Hong Kong. I look at the practicalities and advantages (as well as disadvantages) for the oil behemoth of listing in Asia. 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
On January 18, a delegation led by Arkady Dvorkovich, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, visited the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. It was not the first time a high profile dignitary from Russia had toured its facilities. read
