Hong Kong inventory trade manager Charles Li hints he will set up his personal monetary enterprise immediately after leaving the bourse

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

Charles Li Xiaojia hinted on Monday that he would set up his own economic organization based mostly in Hong Kong immediately after he ways down as chief govt of the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing in two months.

Li, who will switch 60 in March, has stored his playing cards shut to his upper body about any potential programs subsequent his shock announcement in May perhaps that he would leave the city’s stock trade right after 11 several years of company.

“My passion is in finance, and I will remain in Hong Kong which has been my household for 26 decades,” Li reported in Mandarin during a media video conference on Monday.

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The exchange’s market capitalisation has nearly tripled since Li took in excess of in January 2010 to HK$45.7 trillion (US$5.897 trillion) at the conclude of final thirty day period, and Hong Kong has been the world’s premier hub for initial public offerings (IPO) in seven of the previous 11 several years.

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Charles Li Xiaojia mulls upcoming options. Photo: Nora Tam

Since asserting that he would step down from HKEX, rumours have swirled that Li would pursue political office environment in Hong Kong or serve in authorities in Shenzhen. “I could go to Shenzhen to stop by my close friends but not to do the job there,” he claimed.

“It would be much better for Mr Li to operate a financial business enterprise in its place of signing up for politics as that is what he know the best,” said Christopher Cheung Wah-fung, lawmaker for money solutions sector in Hong Kong.

Li mentioned he is intrigued in working as a “drinking water engineer”. H2o is generally made use of in Chinese lifestyle as a metaphor for funds.

The h2o metaphor ongoing as he talked about a single of his greatest achievements though at HKEX: orchestrating a tie-up among Hong Kong and Shanghai inventory marketplaces in 2014, introducing Shenzhen in 2016 for cross-border buying and selling dubbed Stock Connect.

“I want to see far more intercontinental firms listing in Hong Kong in upcoming. This will allow investors to buy intercontinental stocks by using the Hook up strategies, just like utilizing water to feed international fish,” he said.

In the course of his time at HKEX, Li also brought in Alibaba Team Holding’s govt vice-chairman Joe Tsai and Sequoia Capital’s Neil Shen as advisers and launched a moon shot lab to review hi-tech innovation. Alibaba owns the Post.

Li started out his career aged 16 in the oilfields of north-eastern China just before studying in the US to grow to be a attorney. He was China Chairman of JPMorgan Chase & Co in advance of landing in the city’s best-paid economic regulatory position, which commanded HK$51 million in income, reward and share awards previous calendar year.

“I do not want to be an worker any far more. At my age, it will not be effortless to uncover a new job. I would like to see what business alternatives I can produce,” Li stated.

Shares of HKEX, which are them selves detailed on the city’s trade, have risen 192 for every cent considering the fact that Li took in excess of in 2010 closing at HK$387.8 each and every on Monday. The variety of businesses on the regional exchange has far more than doubled in the course of Li’s tenure to 2,533 now.

A rare misstep for Li was the HKEX’s bid to purchase the London Stock Trade for US$36.6 billion very last September, an audacious overture that was finally rebuffed by one of the world’s oldest fiscal marketplaces in favour of a takeover by Refinitiv.

Li will continue on to are living in the town with his wife, a few pet dogs and 3 developed-up children. He mentioned he would be observed in Hong Kong’s monetary and organization district, Central, and will pay a visit to Trade Square, wherever HKEX is dependent, routinely.

Li’s correct-hand male at Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, Calvin Tai, will get his put on an interim basis from January 1, whilst the research continues for a permanent replacement.

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