Strategic plan and CEO’s contract top priorities in first 100 days for new Hong Kong exchange chief Laura Cha
By allowing listings by tech companies with dual-class shares and biotech companies with no revenue, HKEX has struck ‘good balance between market development and investor protection’, says chairwoman
Laura Cha Shih May-lung, the newly elected chairwoman of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, has identified the next three-year strategic plan as well as chief executive Charles Li Xiaojia’s contract renewal as top priorities during her first 100 days in office.
As expected by the market, the board of directors at HKEX elected Cha, the Financial Services Development Council chairwoman, as the bourse operator’s new chairwoman on Thursday morning. She succeeds Chow Chung-kong, who stepped down on Wednesday.
“My first priority in the first 100 days in office, or in the next few years, would be working on the new three-year strategic plan for HKEX, from 2019 to 2021. A major issue is how to enhance the competitiveness of the exchange, to fend off competition from other overseas exchanges,” she said on Thursday, in her first media briefing as chairwoman.
The HKEX announced its largest listing reform in 25 years on Tuesday; it will allow dual-class shareholding technology companies and biotechnology companies with no revenue to apply for listing in Hong Kong from Monday. The bourse faces keen competition from Shanghai, Shenzhen, Singapore and the United States.
“Facing competition from overseas exchanges would be a major challenge for me. However, I believe the listings reform just announced has achieved a good balance between market development and investor protection and, hence, will help the HKEX to compete,” said Cha.