Hong Kong’s top finance executives bank on city to thrive as gateway to China

By Selena Li, Kane Wu and Julie Zhu

HONG KONG, June 27 (Reuters) – In 1997, the environment viewed as Britain returned Hong Kong to Chinese rule, with some pessimistic or wary about the outlook for the town and its part in the worldwide financial method.

20-5 several years afterwards, Hong Kong has so much retained its status as a monetary hub, and some of the city’s top executives are banking on a shiny long term as the territory continues to be a vital springboard for investment into mainland China.

Charles Li, previous main executive of bourse operator Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) 0388.HK and founder of microfinance platform Micro Link, mentioned that despite the fact that he thinks the up coming 25 several years will be “pretty distinctive”, he’s optimistic.

“I’m certain that the over-all prosperity of Hong Kong will stay as powerful as right before because Hong Kong retains its worth to both equally sides,” Li advised Reuters, referring to China and the West.

When he celebrated the handover with close friends much more than two decades back in the city’s bustling nightlife district of Lan Kwai Fong, Li explained several people today observed it as the “starting of a very prolonged ride, and the most effective is nonetheless to appear.”

On Friday, Hong Kong reaches the halfway mark of a 50-12 months experiment built to give the metropolis a significant diploma of autonomy less than Chinese rule.

Critics of the government say political and civil liberties have been vastly curtailed, especially since the introduction of a nationwide stability legislation in 2020.

The finance sector has thrived because the handover. The value of Hong Kong’s inventory marketplace has surged to HK$27.65 trillion ($3.52 trillion) as of conclusion-June, up from HK$3.2 trillion in 1997 and world traders have become significantly reliant on Hong Kong to trade mainland shares.

Turnover on the Hong Kong-Shanghai stock link pipeline – which delivers obtain to carefully managed mainland capital – jumped to 46.5 billion yuan on June 22, up from 12.8 billion yuan when it released in 2014, according to data from HKEX.

On the Hong Kong-Shenzhen inventory hook up channel, turnover stands at about 58 billion yuan, up from 2.7 billion yuan at its launch in 2016.

‘INDISPENSABLE’

Though uncertainty clouds the outlook for political and civil liberties below electoral variations and the sweeping nationwide stability law, other small business executives say Hong Kong’s standing as a economic hub will remain intact.

Some small business foyer teams and diplomats have expressed problem in excess of the outlook for Hong Kong, given an exodus of expertise and worries in excess of the rule of legislation and judicial independence.

“Hong Kong will continue to be indispensable, (and) also the most aggressive gateway among China and the rest of the environment,” Fred Hu, founder and chairman of private fairness group Primavera, instructed Reuters. “I will not feel any mainland metropolis, which includes some metropolitan areas I really like, will bypass Hong Kong.”

The city has contended for some of the world’s most popular preliminary public choices in modern decades, including Alibaba, the New York-listed e-commerce titan, which journeyed to Hong Kong to raise $13 billion in a secondary listing in November 2019.

Hong Kong has been the world’s leading inventory trade by IPO benefit seven instances since the handover, most not long ago in 2019, when 146 providers lifted a full of $40 billion on the primary board, in accordance to Dealogic data.

In a go that authorities say underscores the worth China attaches to Hong Kong, President Xi Jinping will attend the swearing in of the city’s new chief, John Lee, on Friday as effectively as celebrations to mark the handover.

“I think the central government’s intention towards Hong Kong is benign. They do not want to mess up Hong Kong,” Hu claimed.

A previous security main who is sanctioned by the United States, Lee will be closely viewed by a fiscal field keen to get back again on track soon after crippling COVID-19 limitations that have triggered an exodus of people today and viewed the border with mainland China mainly shut for two many years.

David Chin, UBS’ UBSG.S head of expenditure banking for Asia-Pacific, is optimistic on Hong Kong’s outlook, despite the fact that he suggests China’s part on the world wide phase is vital.

“Hong Kong is also the worldwide gateway for China,” he mentioned. “So the overseas romantic relationship, how China interacts with the rest of the earth, is also really essential for Hong Kong.”

($1 = 7.8490 Hong Kong dollars)

(Reporting By Selena Li, Kane Wu and Julie Zhu Composing by Anne Marie Roantree Modifying by Gerry Doyle)

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