Hong Kong's finance chief expects US$20 billion in IPOs this year. Why is that the case?

CGTN Europe interviewed Zhang Zhiwei, President & Chief Economist at Pinpoint Asset Management

Transcript

00:00The Hong Kong Stock Exchange has seen new listings record their strongest start to the year since 2021.

00:072025 could see the city's initial public offering market raise up to US$20 billion,

00:14according to the Financial Secretary, Paul Chan-Mopo.

00:18If he is right, then that would see IPO proceeds nearly double from last year,

00:24when they stood at just under US$11 billion, ranking fourth globally.

00:30Zhang Zhewei is President and Chief Economist at Pinpoint Asset Management.

00:36I think what's driving this is a different way that global investors look at China assets these days.

00:43I think this is a very big change that happened over the past few months,

00:47particularly after the Lunar Chinese New Year,

00:51that we've seen, first of all, in the tech space, right,

00:56so that companies like DeepSeek made a breakthrough,

00:59and that really surprised investors, both domestic and global,

01:03and there's a very sharp re-rating.

01:06And since then, there has been a lot of capital inflows into Hong Kong and mainland China.

01:11I think this is a very big re-rating that people are looking at China macro outlook in a very different way.

01:17And what might challenge Hong Kong's ability to hit that magic US$20 billion mark?

01:23I think the domestic factors are pretty supportive.

01:26A lot of things are improving on the margin, particularly in the tech space.

01:31The challenges would be, I would say, mostly from external factors,

01:35particularly, I would say, the volatility in the global financial market recently

01:40could potentially spill over to global markets, including Hong Kong,

01:45and that could make the investor sentiment negatively affected.

01:53But I think that's probably more of a short-term issue, probably not going to last for the whole year.

01:57There's also the geopolitical issue that investors are always concerned about these days.

02:02But I think those external factors are mostly manageable.

02:07How do Hong Kong's IPO policies compare with other global financial hubs like New York or London?

02:16Well, I won't go into the details.

02:18There are differences, such as there's always requirements for profitability and things like that.

02:25There are always some minor differences across these stock exchanges.

02:31But I would say there are a lot more similarities than differences.

02:34And Hong Kong has a very long track record as a major IPO location.

02:41So I don't think the big number that the financial secretary put forward is that much affected by the policies,

02:49rather it's more driven by the macro environment.

02:52And the policies, I think that the Hong Kong government is also pushing to make reforms

02:57and make it even more attractive for global investors.