Hong Kong’s bourse taps Alibaba’s vice-chairman, HSBC’s ex-CEO and former SEC chair for advice in its growth
- HKEX’s newly established International Advisory Council will provide insights to board of directors
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) has tapped a trio of high-powered executives as advisers to help steer the operator of Asia’s third-most valuable stock market in its growth into a global bourse.
Alibaba Group Holding’s vice-chairman Joe Tsai, HSBC’s former chief executive officer Stuart Gulliver, and the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s former chairperson Mary Schapiro were named as members of the HKEX International Advisory Council for three years, according to a statement by the operator.
The council, led by HKEX Chairman Laura Cha Shih May-lung, is a move by the exchange to grow out of China’s long shadow into a global financial marketplace to rival New York and London. It is also part of the reform pushed by chief executive Charles Li for HKEX to diversify the composition of its listed companies to keep up with technological change and new fundraising needs.
“I would love to see a day when a Silicon Valley company going public on the Nasdaq, having very little business in China, feels the need to come to Hong Kong to tap into some Hong Kong funds,” Tsai said. “If that were to happen, that means those funds sitting in Hong Kong are really looking globally.”
Alibaba owns South China Morning Post, and Tsai is chairman of this newspaper’s board.