Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Investment bankers in Hong Kong have been warned over the quality of their paperwork in filings for initial public offerings after a boom in listings in the Chinese territory.
Hong Kong financial regulators sent letters to banks in the territory highlighting concerns, including failures to address regulator questions and poor descriptions of the business models of companies seeking to list. The letters also drew attention to text that was copied and pasted from previous prospectuses, according to people familiar with the warning.
The letters, sent in recent days, come as investment banks are beefing up staffing in Hong Kong to handle a revival in listings, which are principally coming from mainland Chinese companies using the territory as a base to raise offshore funds for international expansion.
Hong Kong has more than 300 companies in its IPO pipeline, having submitted paperwork to list. Listings so far this year in the territory have raised about US$34bn for companies, according to data from KPMG, making it the top IPO venue globally ahead of the NYSE, Nasdaq and National Stock Exchange of India.
This marks a huge increase from previous years after Covid-19 when Hong Kong’s capital markets stagnated.
“It’s just [about] being sloppy,” said one person who has read the letter, who added that regulators were displeased with excessive use of marketing language in documents submitted by advisers on behalf of the companies.
Two sources who had seen the letter confirmed that Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange contacted banks that work on helping companies go public in the territory with concerns about the quality of application materials.
They said banks might have received different versions of the letter, with some highlighting specific incidents concerning work submitted by the bank.
Last year, the SFC and HKEX unveiled an accelerated IPO application process for certain types of companies, including those already listed in mainland China, in a move to encourage more listings.
HKEX said it was “committed to ensuring the timely and robust review of new listing applications, and continues to proactively engage with issuers, sponsors and professional advisers to ensure the submission of comprehensive and high-quality listing materials”.
The SFC confirmed to the Financial Times that the letters were sent. News of the letters was first reported by Reuters.
