HKEX CEO: Stock exchanges must band together to stay relevant

“If you turn back the clock [to] “Two decades ago, if you had money and wanted to invest, you would call up your brokers and talk about the stocks available there,” Bonnie Chan, chief executive of Hong Kong Exchange and Clearing (HKEX), said Monday at the Fortune Global Forum in Riyadh.

“Now, people can learn about all kinds of investment opportunities. We are entering a phase where exchanges are not really competing with each other, but are working together.”

Since the first Bitcoin boom in early 2010, investors have increasingly discovered new investment vehicles, such as cryptocurrencies and other digital assets.

Meanwhile, stock markets have performed well this year, with indexes hitting all-time highs, partly due to retail investors piling into buzzy companies and investment fads. On Monday, Chan’s colleagues, CEO of Saudi Tadawul Group Eng. Khaled Abdullah Al-Hussan and Nasdaq Vice Chairman Bob McCoy indicated that investor appetite has begun to return globally.

“The United States, as of the end of 2021, has had two or three years of tough markets where people haven’t been able to go public. In 2025, we’re gaining some momentum here,” McCoy said, referring to US markets. He added that an increasing number of companies want to go public (i.e. list shares for sale on the stock exchange), including private equity firms and government-backed companies.

Al-Hussan also pointed to growing investor appetite in the Saudi Arabia market, noting that in the past three years, the country has gone from eight to nine initial public offerings per year, to about 40 to 45 IPOs per year.

Hong Kong stock exchanges have recently completed nearly 80 initial public offerings, noted Chan, of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. “We went through a phase in the last few years where there were questions about the investment capacity of Chinese stocks. But I think we’ve made a lot of progress,” she said.

She attributed the global rise in initial public offerings to investors’ desire to diversify their investment and business strategies, in order to hedge against market fluctuations resulting from geopolitical uncertainty and new protectionist policies.

“They want to put their eggs in more than one basket,” she said, adding that Hong Kong had recently seen a return of international investors. “This year, we have seen strong appetite from investors. They want artificial intelligence, semiconductors and names in green technology.”

Aside from technology, Chan pointed to a new investment trend, which she called “new consumerism.” She cited the latest consumer obsession with Lapopo dolls, collectible plush toys designed by Hong Kong illustrator Kasing Lung. Pop Mart, which sells Labubu dolls in blind boxes, is currently valued at more than $40 billion.