Charles Li moves on in surprise announcement to step down in 18 months as chief executive of Hong Kong’s stock exchange
- HKEX has formed a selection committee, led by chairwoman Laura Cha, to find a replacement for Charles Li
- Government wants successor to pay more attention to corporate governance
Charles Li, one of the longest-serving chief executives of a global financial marketplace, has thrown in the towel after more than a decade as head of the Hong Kong stock exchange (HKEX), in a surprise announcement to let his contract lapse in October 2021.
The former oilfield worker, journalist and banker, also known as Li Xiaojia, will not seek reappointment when his current term expires at the end of October next year, according to a statement. He will continue to lead Asia’s third-largest exchange while a selection committee headed by HKEX chairwoman Laura Cha Shih May-lung looks for a successor, and may leave earlier if a replacement is found sooner, the filing said.
The unexpected move is a bookend in a career that has taken Li, who turned 59 in March, from the oilfields of north-eastern China to Wall Street before landing in Hong Kong in the city’s highest-paid financial job. The exchange’s market capitalisation has doubled since Li took over the helm in January 2010 to HK$35 trillion (US$4.48 trillion) at the end of last week, and Hong Kong has seized the crown as the world’s hub for initial public offerings (IPO) in seven of the past 11 years.
“I have passed the most exciting 10 years of my career at the exchange with a dream team, and we have achieved what we want to achieved,” Li said during a teleconference with Cha, after the exchange posted a 13 per cent drop in first-quarter net profit. “It is the right time to call it a day as it will allow me to have 18 months to wind things up.”
The China Chairman of JPMorgan Chase & Co. before being hired to head the HKEX, Li is best known as the architect of the Connect programme, a series of cross-border investment channels that allow global investors to tap China’s yuan-denominated A shares and bonds, while letting Chinese institutions and individuals invest in shares and financial instruments listed in Hong Kong and London. The Connect programme now contributes to about 10 per cent of the HKEX’s revenue.