Hong Kong sees opportune time for advancing IPO connect scheme: IPO queen Pamela Chung

Scheme introduction would allow mainland Chinese investors access to the city’s IPOs and boost investor capital, the managing director says

Hong Kong is seeing an opportune time to move forward with a so-called IPO connect scheme, according to Pamela Chung Kong-hung, Vistra’s managing director and head of its IPO & Share Registry Services, who says the scheme would allow mainland investors access to initial public offerings (IPOs) in Hong Kong, enabling better price discovery and expanding the investor capital pool to better match the city’s large IPO pipeline.

“The secondary market connect has been operating very stably without causing capital outflows,” Chung said in an interview with the South China Morning Post.

“The focus now is no longer on capital flight, but on market structure development,” she added.

Beijing’s earlier connect scheme, its Stock Connect scheme launched in 2014, first linked Hong Kong and Shanghai, before adding Shenzhen in 2016. The scheme allowed mainland investors to buy Hong Kong stocks and international investors to trade mainland shares via Hong Kong. The program has since expanded to include bonds, ETFs, wealth management products and swaps.

Chung, who has three decades of experience working alongside investment bankers, lawyers, regulators and listed issuers on high-profile landmark IPO transactions in Hong Kong, saw the introduction of the scheme as the “next step to achieving a full capital market connection between the two regions, as Hong Kong and Beijing actively promote renminbi dual-counter trading and various financial connect schemes.”

An IPO connect programme has been heavily discussed for over a decade. While Hong Kong authorities have long sought the introduction of the programme to boost market liquidity, they previously faced resistance from regulators in Beijing.