Wall Street chiefs stage return to Hong Kong after city scraps quarantine
Goldman Sachs chief executive David Solomon, Morgan Stanley’s James Gorman and Citigroup’s Jane Fraser will attend a financial forum in Hong Kong designed to restore the city’s reputation as Asia’s top financial hub after years of restrictive coronavirus pandemic policies.
The confirmation of the global bank executives’ attendance from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority on Thursday comes less than a week after Hong Kong scrapped mandatory hotel quarantine for international visitors. Many executives attending the forum will be visiting Hong Kong for the first time since the outbreak of Covid-19 in 2020.
The city’s government hopes that the conference, which coincides with the return of the rugby Sevens tournament next month, will lay the foundation for Hong Kong’s economic revival in wake of the pandemic and a crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2019.
Hong Kong’s role as a destination for offshore listings by Chinese companies has been tested over the past 12 months as Covid restrictions have cut the city off from global finance and greater scrutiny of offshore technology listings by Beijing throttled the flow of initial public offerings.
On Thursday, the two largest Hong Kong IPOs of the year both fell sharply at the start of trading.
Onewo, the property services subsidiary of developer China Vanke, which raised almost $740mn from its share sale, fell as much as 7.9 per cent, while electric vehicle group Leapmotor tumbled as much as 32.9 per cent after raising more than $800mn this month.
Video: Hong Kong's future as Asia's financial centre | FT Film
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Primrose Riordan
