Let us be grateful that the bouncers at the door of the Grab Easy Money (GEM) party are still allowing access only to those small struggling entrepreneurs on the admission list.
Take Tom.com, a mighty small company indeed compared with the wealth of its backer, the Cheung Kong group. There can be no problem having it on the list. Just look at the lonely friendless struggle this little company faces to make its way in a cruel world.
Take SUNeVision, a company that seemingly couldn't even raise the money to buy itself a user friendly name as Cheung Kong did for the Tom. But that is understandable. It is backed by only Sun Hung Kai Properties. Who has ever heard of them? Take another pauper like hongkong.com. Great name but such a midget compared with its ultimate supporter, the New World group, that it may be glad GEM had no minimum height requirement for entry.
More are on their way. It seems the fourth of our four giant developers, the Henderson group, also has in mind a tiny i-stock, poor and struggling enough to be just the sort of listing candidate for which GEM was established.
So let us all rejoice that the gatekeepers are doing their jobs. This is a special market for unknowns with brilliant ideas but no access to the money that could bring these ideas to fruition. Now they can get that money. Where else could they have got it? But GEM will do even more to accommodate them. It is to begin a review of its listing rules three months ahead of schedule in order to make necessary changes.
The problem, says stock exchange chief Alec Tsui Yiu-wa, is that some listing rules are 'tougher than those in overseas markets' and are hurting GEM's competitiveness.
This may seem a little unlikely when Francis Leung Pak-to, the vice-chairman of BNP Prime Peregrine which brought Tom.com to the market, says that companies from around the region are now interested in getting a listing on GEM.