First female chair for HK’s bourse named
Winning new listings, cooperation with mainland key goals for Laura Cha
Executive Councilor Laura Cha Shih May-lung made history on Thursday after being named as the first woman to chair the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd, which runs Asia’s third-largest bourse in terms of market capitalization.
Cha, 68, will head the HKEx board of directors for the next two years, coinciding with the remainder of her term as a director. She replaces Chow Chung-kong, who had held the position for the past six years.
HKEx said on Thursday Cha’s appointment is subject to the approval of Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuetngor.
Cha, who also chairs the Financial Services Development Council and is a non-executive deputy chairwoman of HSBC, ruled out any potential conflict of interest in her new post.
“My role in the FSDC is that of a promoter, while my new appointment in the stock exchange puts me in the role of an operator. I don’t see any conflict of interest as the interests are very much aligned, which is to make our financial markets brighter through joint efforts,” Cha told a press conference on Thursday.
Cha had served as deputy chairwoman of the Securities and Futures Commission in 1988 and was the first nonmainland resident to be appointed vice-chairperson of the China Securities Regulatory Commission in 2001.
She said her major tasks are to promote HKEx as a premier listing venue and enhance cooperation with bourses on the Chinese mainland.
“We’ll spare no efforts in luring Saudi Aramco and other qualified companies to list in Hong Kong. Since we have established the regulatory framework with our new listing rules, we also aim to have more new economy enterprises listed in Hong Kong,” Cha said.
“We need to enhance our competitiveness in attracting more new economy companies, but our relationship with the mainland market is more than just competition. Fundamentally, it’s mutually beneficial.”
Cha will formulate a threeyear strategic work plan from 2019 to 2021 to facilitate the operation of the new listing regime and consider launching new value-added services.
HKEx announced on Tuesday its biggest initial public offering listing reform in two decades, allowing three new categories of enterprises to float on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in a bid to revive its flagging IPO business amid fierce competition from New York, Shanghai, Singapore and other bourses.
From next Monday, enterprises with a dual-class shareholding structure or weighted voting rights, biotechnology companies that have yet to take in revenue, and companies that are already listed overseas and plan to seek a secondary listing in Hong Kong, can apply to list in the city.