Hong Kong Now Top 2 in IPOs

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The current hot market for IPOs (initial public offerings) now finds Hong Kong surpassing New York, and merely a few ticks below front-runner Shanghai for being the hottest centers for companies selling shares in new issue underwritings, according to the WSJ.

Red Star Macalline Group Corp priced its IPO in Hong Kong at the top of the range on June 19, raising HK$7.22bn ($931.34m) for the furniture retailer-cum-shopping mall owner that has been dubbed China’s answer to Ikea.

BrokerDealer.com global database of brokerdealers includes all of the leading Hong Kong-based BrokerDealer. Click here to get connected with one now. 

The offering continues Hong Kong’s strong run as an IPO venue thanks to a stock-market boom. So far this year, Hong Kong ranks second globally as a venue for IPOs by value, behind Shanghai and ahead of New York, according to data from Dealogic.

The company secured US$330 million in orders from cornerstone investors, who agreed to buy and hold the shares for six months, including New York-based hedge fund Falcon Edge Capital, household appliances maker Gree Electric Appliances Inc., Shandong state-owned Asset Investment Holdings, China National Building Material and hedge fund BosValen Asset Management. It is scheduled to begin trading in Hong Kong on June 26.

If Legend’s listing takes place, it would be the year’s third-largest in Hong Kong after a US$4.5 billion listing by Chinese brokerage firm HTSC, better known as Huatai Securities, in May, and a US$4.1 billion IPO by GF Securities Co. in March.

To read the full article, click here. 

 

 

Asia BrokerDealers Ramp Up For More ETFs

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Brokerdealer.com blog update profiles brokerdealers’ push for a more diversified market in Hong Kong. In an effort to listen to the brokerdealers and diversify the market, Hong Kong’s Securities & Futures Commission is looking into allowing more off shore ETFs. An extract from AsianInvestor article, “SFC mulls more foreign ETF listings in HK” tells us more.

Hong Kong’s Securities & Futures Commission (SFC) is considering allowing more offshore ETFs, including from the US to be cross-listed in Hong Kong.

The move comes amid calls by some industry players from Hong Kong to diversify its ETF business, because the product range at present is predominantly Greater-China focused.

A senior executive in the ETF business told AsisanInvestor that the SFC that set up a working group to look into expanding the scope of the ETF industry and further developing int. It reached out to individual fund managers towards the end of last year to solicit interest on cross-listing their offshore ETFs in Hong Kong.

The senior executive said their group was interested in listing its American ETF in Hong Kong, but the decision hinges on the SFC and will involve a change in regulatory policy.

To read the full article from AsianInvestor, click here.

Bitcoin Market Could Be Too Good To Be True

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Brokerdealer.com blog update courtesy of CNBC.bitcoin-scams

In December, Brokerdealer.com covered the emerging bitcoin market and in January, MarketMuse profiled the Winklevoss twins’ plans to launch a bitcoin ETF. The bitcoin market is still emerging and was on track to be a booming business but the market now is taking a step back. In fact, UK International Business Times is saying that the bitcoin market is dying off, now with the supposed bitcoin scam occurring in Hong Kong, the bitcoin market seems to be even more hopeless.

Hong Kong-based bitcoin exchange MyCoin has allegedly shut its doors and stolen HKD 3 billion ($386.9 million) in the process.

The South China Morning Post reported Monday that 30 MyCoin clients approached a local lawmaker with complaints that the company had fled with funds from up to 3,000 investors.

The reports coming out of Hong Kong would seem to indicate that there may have been a Ponzi scheme at play.

“No one seems to know who is behind this,” a woman surnamed Lau, who said she lost HKD 1.3 million, told the paper. “Everyone says they, too, are victims … but we were told by those at higher tiers [of the scheme] that we can get our money back if we find more new clients.”

One warning sign of a pending collapse could have been that when the company changed its trading rules to bar people from exchanging all of their bitcoins unless they solicited new investors for the firm.

As bitcoin-focused site CoinDesk reasons, the incident may lead to new regulations for the cryptocurrency industry in Hong Kong, “which has so far operated with little scrutiny.”

According to the SCMP, MyCoin had hosted events at luxury hotels and a roadshow in Macau in 2014.

MyCoin did not immediately return a request for comment.

For the entire article from CNBC, click here.

 

China Opens Up Exchange to Foreign Investors: One from Column A, Please..(“A Shares”)

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Brokerdealer.com blog update profiles latest news from China, where foreign investors will soon be able to trade shares listed on the mainland’s main stock exchange, the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The Shanghai Hong Kong Connect, a program set to kick off in mid-October, will allow foreign investors to buy some 568 stocks in the Shanghai Stock Exchange through Hong Kong brokerage accounts, subject to an annual total quota of $48 billion.

The Brokerdealer.com database includes a comprehensive directory of Hong Kong and Taiwan brokerdealers that are qualified to help guide foreign investors to this market.

Shenzhen Stock Exchange is expected to launch a similar program next year. As China’s domestic markets become more open, they could be included in major stock indexes, which would lead to billions of dollars in new cash from funds that track these benchmarks, according to UBS AG.

This isn’t the first time overseas investors are able to buy Chinese stocks. Many of the country’s major companies are listed in Hong Kong, where they trade as so-called H-shares. Investors could invest in A-shares, which trade on China’s domestic markets, by buying funds that had access to the market under a program that accounted for less than 2% of the Shanghai market’s free float.

The new program will let investors buy A-shares directly, giving them more flexibility in that market as well as access to many sectors and stocks—such as Chinese liquor manufacturers and makers of traditional medicine—that don’t trade in Hong Kong.

For the full story from the WSJ, please click here.