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Challenges ahead at HKEX for new CEO Aguzin, as Charles Li sets bar high
- During Li’s decade-long stint, HKEX saw its market capitalisation almost triple
- Aguzin faces quite a big challenge as Li did a great job of communicating with Beijing: analyst
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Nicolas Aguzin, who takes over as chief executive of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) on Monday, faces the immediate challenge of maintaining the stellar run that has vaulted the bourse operator among the world’s largest such companies.
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Charles Li Xiaojia, his predecessor, has set the bar quite high. Aguzin, 52, faces “quite a big challenge ahead, as Li did a great job in terms of communications and links with the mainland”, said Wang Chen, a partner at Xufunds Investment Management in Shanghai. “The arrival of the new CEO will create uncertainty over HKEX’s links with China. The other pressing task for him is to nail down a new driver for earnings growth for HKEX, to keep the momentum alive and digest its stretched valuation.”
During Li’s decade-long stint, HKEX saw its market capitalisation almost triple; it claimed the title of the world’s biggest initial public offering (IPO) market in seven out of the past 12 years; and fostered unprecedented trading links with mainland Chinese peers. Under Li’s stewardship, Hong Kong was able to solidify its position as a global financial hub, even as the coronavirus pandemic and the anti-government protests before that plunged the city into its worst-ever economic recession.
What will work in the Argentine banker’s favour is frayed ties between Beijing and Washington, which have not improved since Joe Biden’s inauguration as US president. Biden has kept alive an array of executive orders passed by the Trump administration, including sanctions against Chinese companies which it says are linked to the country’s military, and increased scrutiny of Chinese companies listed on US stock exchanges.
This will fuel an IPO boom that has seen the likes of Chinese technology companies such as Baidu and Bilibili list in the city. The bourse operator is also deepening an overhaul of listing rules that started in 2018, aiming to make it easier for Chinese companies with shares traded on US exchanges to launch secondary flotations in Hong Kong.
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China’s economy expands record 18.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2021
China’s economy expands record 18.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2021
A total of 146 new economy companies have gone public in Hong Kong over the past three years, raising a combined HK$682.2 billion (US$87.9 billion). In the first quarter this year, the value of new listings has surged nine-fold to HK$136 billion, according to HKEX’s quarterly results.
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