Tsingtao Brewery’s initial public offering 30 years ago marked the first mainland Chinese listing in Hong Kong and set the city on a path that would transform it from a small regional market to one of the world’s leading financial centres.
Three decades later, Hong Kong’s market has diversified very little, and remains heavily reliant on the listing and trading of mainland companies, which now account for close to 80 per cent of market capitalisation and almost 90 per cent of turnover.
Slower Chinese economic growth, geopolitical tensions, and Shanghai and Shenzhen’s growing competitiveness, therefore, pose serious challenges. However, Hong Kong must also contend with radical changes in the structure of global markets.
* First published in The South China Morning Post (7 June 2023)
Image from SCMP.com
