Greater Bay Area to drive Hong Kong IPO market, with more integration attracting foreign and domestic fundraising

Beijing’s Greater Bay Area development plan will be the next driver of Hong Kong’s listing market, Andrew Weir, vice-chairman of KPMG China and chairman of the stock exchange listing committee, said on Tuesday.

The plan, which aims to integrate the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau with nine cities in the southern Guangdong province into an economic and business hub, will make the city more attractive to international companies as well as domestic firms looking to raise funds.

“The Greater Bay Area will play an important role in enhancing the Hong Kong IPO [initial public offering] market,” Weir – who earlier in the day spoke on a panel about the city’s role as a gateway between china and the world – said in an interview on the sidelines of the Asian Financial Forum.

“International companies will [look at] Hong Kong as a more important market and will be more willing to come here to seek listings, after it will be integrated with the bay area as a bigger market,” he said.

Greater Bay Area companies conducting technology, biotechnology, education, health care and other businesses will want to raise funds in Hong Kong. The southern Guangdong province cities are attracting a lot of private-equity players, while sectors such as logistics, e-commerce fulfilment as well as start-ups are drawing other investors, Weir said. “They will need to find a way to exit their investment and access capital markets. Hong Kong is the ideal market for them to have an IPO,” he added.

The stock exchange listing committee, which Weir heads, approves new listings and sets policy for the city. Reforms introduced in April 2018 will boost Hong Kong’s IPO market, he told the panel earlier on Tuesday.