New | Hong Kong blue chip firms slow on gender diversification of boards
Out of a total 655 directors of 50 HSI firms, only 73 or 11 per cent are women. Among the 109 new directors appointed last year in these companies, some 11 per cent or only 12 were women
Hong Kong’s biggest blue chip companies have been reluctant to appoint more women on their boards, with only a few naming more female directors while 71 per cent have done nothing or even cut down their female representation on their boards last year.
“This is disappointing,” said Fern Ngai, chief executive of Community Business which is a non-profit organisation that conducts the annual survey since 2009 to track diversity of the boards of local blue chip firms.
While the average number of women on the board of the 50 Hang Seng Index stocks has increased slightly to 11.1 per cent in January this year, up from 9.6 per cent in 2014, it however shows the major reasons behind the increase are due to mainly to four companies having appointed six more female directors. This includes the Link Management, China Mengniu Dairy, Galaxy Entertainment and Lenovo.
Eight companies such as MTR and Bank of Communications have seen their percentage of female directors decline last year as they expanded the number of directors while not increasing the number of female directors.
Twenty five blue chips, including Cheung Kong and Swire Pacific, has not changed their percentage of female directors.
Out of a total 655 directors of 50 HSI firms, only 73 or 11 per cent are women. Among the 109 new directors appointed last year in these companies, some 11 per cent or only 12 were women.