HKEX was delighted to host its first ever Southeast Asia Forum on 3 December. The anchor session saw HKEX Chief Executive Charles Li host a fireside chat with Alibaba Group Executive Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai, where they talked about the attractiveness of the Hong Kong IPO market for potential issuers in Southeast Asia.

Mr Tsai shared Alibaba’s experience of doing business in Southeast Asia, and highlighted the region’s huge potential, underpinned by a growing and largely untapped consumer base and an increasingly tech-savvy population.

He also discussed the evolution of the Hong Kong equity market to become a truly global marketplace, attracting international capital and evolving into a leading new economy and tech listing hub.

“Think about that huge capital base coming to Asia, and a lot of that is focused on Hong Kong, because Hong Kong already has a critical mass of high-quality technology companies listed here. Hong Kong is the place to be, because global capital is already here,” Mr Tsai said at the fireside chat.

Mr Tsai shared the development of four major trends that underpin the strength and appeal of the Hong Kong capital markets:

1. Rising proportion of non-US investors in the market – investors from Asia, Canada, Europe and the Middle East are increasingly flocking to Hong Kong and Asia more broadly. 
2. Rise in non-traditional investors to the market – such as sovereign wealth funds and pension funds. Mr Tsai expects the allocation by sovereign wealth funds to Asia, to rise from 3% to 10-15% over time, with much of the focus on the Hong Kong equity market.
3. Traditional fund houses have, over the last four to five years, been building their teams in Asia, and many of those are based in Hong Kong, and this bodes very well overall for Hong Kong and more broadly, Asian capital markets.
4. Rise in local fund managers – some of these regional organisaitons have multi-billion dollar sized funds, and they have become very big players in the IPO market in Hong Kong.

While most tech companies currently listed in Hong Kong are from China, Mr Tsai expects tech listings over the next five to ten years to hail from all over the world, particularly in Southeast Asia.

This webinar also brought together business and capital markets leaders to discuss opportunities of collaboration across Hong Kong, Mainland China and Southeast Asia. HKEX Head of Markets Wilfred Yiu delivered opening remarks with a look at Hong Kong’s competitiveness as a leading international capital market, followed by a regulatory overview by Head of Special Advisory and Projects of the Listing Division, Grace Kan.

During the subsequent panel discussion, business leaders and experts joined Head of Global Issuer Services Christina Bao to look at how companies can leverage Hong Kong’s capital markets to achieve their fundraising needs. Bao said Hong Kong has a dynamic tech ecosystem and a vibrant financial market that provides transparent and stable access to liquidity, critical to help support the growth of Southeast Asian companies.

A big thank you to all of our speakers and guests for making this webinar a great success. See you next time.