Hong Kong inventory trade boss Charles Li hints he will set up his personal fiscal business enterprise just after leaving the bourse

© SCMP
Charles Li Xiaojia will step down as main govt of HKEX in two months. Picture: Nora Tam

Charles Li Xiaojia hinted on Monday that he would set up his have monetary small business based mostly in Hong Kong just after he techniques down as chief executive of the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing in two weeks.

Li, who will switch 60 in March, has held his cards shut to his upper body about any upcoming programs following his shock announcement in Could that he would leave the city’s inventory exchange after 11 many years of company.

“My enthusiasm is in finance, and I will stay in Hong Kong which has been my house for 26 years,” Li explained in Mandarin in the course of a media online video convention on Monday.

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The exchange’s market capitalisation has just about tripled because Li took above in January 2010 to HK$45.7 trillion (US$5.897 trillion) at the conclusion of very last thirty day period, and Hong Kong has been the world’s most significant hub for original community offerings (IPO) in seven of the past 11 years.

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Charles Li Xiaojia mulls foreseeable future programs. Photograph: Nora Tam

Given that asserting that he would step down from HKEX, rumours have swirled that Li would go after political business office in Hong Kong or serve in authorities in Shenzhen. “I might go to Shenzhen to check out my friends but not to perform there,” he said.

“It would be better for Mr Li to run a monetary business enterprise as a substitute of signing up for politics as that is what he know the very best,” stated Christopher Cheung Wah-fung, lawmaker for financial providers sector in Hong Kong.

Li stated he is fascinated in performing as a “water engineer”. Drinking water is generally applied in Chinese culture as a metaphor for revenue.

The h2o metaphor continued as he talked about 1 of his greatest achievements while at HKEX: orchestrating a tie-up concerning Hong Kong and Shanghai stock markets in 2014, including Shenzhen in 2016 for cross-border investing dubbed Stock Join.

“I want to see a lot more worldwide corporations listing in Hong Kong in long run. This will make it possible for traders to acquire worldwide shares via the Join strategies, just like employing water to feed global fish,” he stated.

For the duration of his time at HKEX, Li also introduced in Alibaba Group Holding’s govt vice-chairman Joe Tsai and Sequoia Capital’s Neil Shen as advisers and introduced a moon shot lab to study hi-tech innovation. Alibaba owns the Put up.

Li started out his occupation aged 16 in the oilfields of north-jap China prior to learning in the US to turn out to be a lawyer. He was China Chairman of JPMorgan Chase & Co forward of landing in the city’s maximum-paid out financial regulatory task, which commanded HK$51 million in salary, reward and share awards previous calendar year.

“I do not want to be an staff any more. At my age, it will not be effortless to come across a new job. I would like to see what business options I can develop,” Li explained.

Shares of HKEX, which are on their own detailed on the city’s trade, have risen 192 per cent considering the fact that Li took more than in 2010 closing at HK$387.8 each and every on Monday. The amount of corporations on the regional exchange has a lot more than doubled in the course of Li’s tenure to 2,533 now.

A unusual misstep for Li was the HKEX’s bid to invest in the London Stock Trade for US$36.6 billion past September, an audacious overture that was in the end rebuffed by just one of the world’s oldest economic marketplaces in favour of a takeover by Refinitiv.

Li will keep on to live in the metropolis with his wife, 3 pet dogs and three grown-up small children. He claimed he would be seen in Hong Kong’s financial and business district, Central, and will stop by Trade Square, exactly where HKEX is centered, usually.

Li’s proper-hand gentleman at Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, Calvin Tai, will just take his place on an interim basis from January 1, while the lookup proceeds for a everlasting substitution.

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