The second meeting of the Financial Leaders Forum was held today, chaired by Financial Secretary Paul Chan.
Participants discussed the development of Hong Kong as a preferred listing platform for both initial public offering (IPO) and secondary listing, with targeted focus on emerging and innovative companies.
They also studied the recommendations made by the Financial Services Development Council on positioning Hong Kong as an international IPO centre of choice.
Capital and securities market initiatives, as envisaged by the Securities & Futures Commission, for enhancing Hong Kong's competitiveness as an international financial centre were also considered.
Speaking to the media after the meeting, Mr Chan said forum members set three principles in considering attracting emerging and innovative companies to list in Hong Kong.
"The first principle adopted is that perhaps we do not need to create a new board for these purposes, but instead, in the listing rule set up a separate chapter.
"The second is when we attract these companies to Hong Kong for listing, it is particularly those with weighted voting rights. It is important to have appropriate safeguards to protect investors' interests and also to make sure the quality of our market will not be diminished.
"The Hong Kong Stock Exchange in consultation with the Securities & Futures Commission will devise the relevant rules and regulations for consultation with the market.
"The third principle is, in considering secondary listing, the threshold for those companies coming to Hong Kong for secondary listing will be the same as those applying for initial public offering, so that there will not be regulatory arbitrage."
The forum will meet again in the next quarter.
