Jake's View | Council proposals won't do much for investor protection
Struggle your way through the consulta-babble in which the FSDC report is written and you find that these new boards would be just another way of allowing in companies like Alibaba whose directors want a listing but don't want to put their own skin in the game.
Hong Kong's Financial Services Development Council proposed yesterday the creation of several new listing boards, including one specialising in companies with unique shareholding structures...
Struggle your way through the consulta-babble in which this report is written and you find that these new boards would be just another way of allowing in companies like Alibaba whose directors want a listing but don't want to put their own skin in the game.
We have already said no to this idea, and said it resoundingly. If you want to dive for the bottom, go to Singapore. They don't have much in the way of scruples down there. We do. We may not practise one person, one vote in politics but we stick to one share, one vote in the market.
And yet here, trying it on again, we have this odd financial advisory council that the chief executive, an estate agent by trade, appointed on his own mandate without much reference to the financial world, and which has since done little but put out a stream of self-serving position papers.
Hey, fellas, listen up. We said no. Do you live on another planet or something?