Hong Kong tops world ranking in IPOs

Mark Pinkstone/Former Chief Information Officer of HK government

Once pundits described the wealth of Hong Kong as its streets being paved with gold. Today, it’s still not far from that. Corporations seeking the end of the rainbow for that pot of gold are now stopping at Hong Kong for their financial needs.

Now Hong Kong is not only the financial hub in Asia, but also in the world.

Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) during the past week have pushed Hong Kong to the forefront, with leading accountancy firms KPMG China and Deloitte both ranking Hong Kong first globally ahead of the NASDAQ, New York, Shanghai Stock exchanges and the National Stock Exchange of India (which topped the list last year).

Hong Kong is expected to list 80 new IPOs this year raising about HK$200 billion (US$25.5 billion). Last year it completed only 21 IPOs raising HK$5.8 billion (US$ 740 million).

An elated Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po told a packed financial audience in Seoul, South Korea, on Wednesday that the core of Hong Kong’s success was our values: - openness, diversity, international character and global connectivity. Under the ‘one country, two systems’ governing framework, Hong Kong preserves its free port status, along with the free flow of capital, information, goods and talent.

And while Chan was wooing potential investors in Seoul, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange had its busiest day of the year when five mainland companies made their trading debuts simultaneously. The five debutants raised HK$10.4 billion (US$11.32 billion) from their IPOs, adding to several jumbo-sized deals made already this year.

Winner of the day was Shanghai-listed semiconductor chip designer Fortior Technology which raised HK$2.26 billion (US$287 million) in its offering.

Wednesday was also the fifth trading session of 2025 where multiple companies went public on the same day in Hong Kong.

Deloitte noted that Hong Kong would see around HK$102.1 billion(US$13billion) raised from 40 IPOs between January and June, which represents a 33 percent increase year on year in terms of number of deals and six to seven times more in terms of size.

The strong performance was boosted by four mega mainland listings from Shanghai and Shenzhen, including that of battery giant CATL, which raised HK$41 billion in capital in Hong Kong, as well as bubble tea chain Mixue that raised HK$34.5 billion.

But Hong Kong doesn’t stop at just raising money, it also helps companies physically set-up shop here to tap mainland and regional markets.

Invest Hong Kong (InvestHK), a government agency designed to assist new startups, has assisted more than 1,300 overseas and mainland companies to set up or expand their business in Hong Kong from January 2023 to the first six months of 2025, bringing in foreign direct investment of more than HK$168 billion (US$21.4billion). These startups created more than 19,000 jobs within the first year of operation or expansion, contributing to the local job market and reaffirming Hong Kong's position as a leading business hub in Asia.

The top five sectors boosting their presence in Hong Kong are financial services and fintech, innovation and technology, family offices, tourism and hospitality and business and professional services.
Director General of InvestHK, Ms Alpha Lau said the agency also assists mainland companies to go global via Hong Kong and further promote Hong Kong's advantages as a regional trade and high-end logistics hub. “We will continue to leverage Hong Kong's role as a two-way springboard for mainland and overseas companies to connect between our country and the rest of the world under the 'one country, two systems' principle," she said.

The story of Hong Kong is one of tremendous efficiency with virtually unlimited resources. When wrapping up his talk in Seoul, Chan left his audience with these priceless gems: Hong Kong has no dividend tax, no capital gains tax, a low profits tax at only 16.5 per cent, trading in multiple currencies, including HKD, USD and RMB, and trading hours aligned with the Asian time zone. What could be a better place to do business?

Mark Pinkstone

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Mark Pinkstone/Former Chief Information Officer of HK government

Six years after the bloody riots in Hong Kong, China hawk, The New York Times (NYT), is still calling the incident a “peaceful demonstration for democracy.”The world was a witness as television networks from every country flashed vivid scenes of bloody clashes between the police and rioters. There was no denying the fact they were anything but full-blown riots.

The June 30 issue of the newspaper carried a special report by stringer Tiffany May reporting from Hong Kong that three activists were still “paying the price” for demanding democracy in the Special Administrative Region (SAR). But the world’s witnesses know better: Democracy was hardly an issue. May painted a picture of the trio facing hardship after release from prison where they served various sentences for rioting. They had trouble finding jobs and lost many friends, their life had become a void.

At the time of the riots in 2019, Hong Kong had a fully elected legislature (50 per cent by geographic constituencies and 50 per cent by peer-based functional constituencies), the president was elected from among its members and the SAR’s Chief Executive was elected by a 1,500 strong electoral committee. [The US president is elected by only 500 electoral committee].

So, democracy could hardly be an issue for the riots, except for the NYT and other western media which needed the catchphrase to justify their support for the rioters. After all, they could not be seen to be supporting cold blooded rioters who had an ulterior motive to overthrow the government, which was their ultimate aim.

Ms May said in her essay that her chosen unnamed three had joined the protests “hoping for more democracy.” The only step further in the democratic movement for Hong Kong is universal suffrage – one man, one vote for the entire legislature – and that is already enshrined in the SAR’s Basic Law. It is coming, it’s just a matter of time.

Hong Kong has been very vulnerable to foreign influences ever since the handover in 1997. It thrives on a unique formular of one country, two systems ( a bastion of capitalism in a communist regime). And it is against the principles of the US’s call for universal democracy.

Capitalism and communism are a contradiction of terms it argues and therefore cannot succeed. But that is why it is unique and after 28 years, the formula is working. Hong Kong is as successful today as it was in pre-1997 under British colonial administration.

It is successful because the people of Hong Kong want it to succeed. And it is absolutely necessary for it to succeed for China to fulfil its obligations to resume its administration of Taiwan. But it is not in the interests of the US to see China embrace democracy, while maintaining its communist ideology, as part of its family. The pragmatic attitude of China is a positive step towards world peace and the propagated threat of communism dominating the world does not exist, except in the mind of the US.

For the US to halt the progress of China’s growing position in the world, it needed a Chinese scapegoat to fail, and Hong Kong was the target. Through its various spy agencies, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), and the CIA, the US infiltrated Hong Kong’s gullible lawmakers, workers and youth to create mayhem. And through the Five Eyes intelligence network (US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand), it convinced world leaders that democracy was not working in Hong Kong.

In fact, since the upheavals, the legislature has been expanded to include greater elected members from 70 to 90 seats to voice their concerns when vetting government actions. The new members replaced those who were ousted because of their influence by the NED.

The NYT activists have only themselves to blame for their loneliness. They chose the path laid out by foreign forces to change the direction of Hong Kong. But it was the wrong path and, like all criminals, they had to pay the consequences for their actions.