Hong Kong Exchange Tops Global Listings, Earns Record Profit

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing has had a bumper year with record profits and news on Thursday that it topped a global ranking of initial public offerings in 2025.

The exchange said total revenue and revenue rose 30% to a peak of $3.7 billion, while profit attributable to shareholders rose 36% to $2.3 billion.

Core business revenue rose 32% from 2024 as record trading volumes in capital markets drove higher trading and clearing fees.

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Carlson Tong, chairman of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEx), said the performance was driven by “strong interest and increasing participation from international and mainland Chinese investors amid a continued dynamic macro backdrop”.

“In 2025, HKEX solidified its role as the global super-connector, regained its position as the world’s leading IPO venue, and set new trading and financial performance records,” said Chief Executive Officer Bonnie Chan.

She added that the exchange expects volatility “to persist in the current macro environment into 2026.”

But she said capital markets had reason to be optimistic as global investors seek diversification and risk management opportunities in Asian and Chinese assets.

HKEX’s net investment income is expected to be affected in part by changes in interest rates and redemptions from external portfolios, Chief Financial Officer Hui Hanbo said on Thursday.

119 listings and hundreds of applications

In 2025, the Hong Kong IPO market will usher in 119 new listings, raising a total of US$36.7 billion, a year-on-year increase of 226%.

Last year, dozens of Chinese companies flocked to Hong Kong to raise overseas capital, thanks to Beijing’s policy support and Hong Kong regulators’ improved listing rules.

Economist Kelvin Lam, who studies China, told AFP the renewed interest in Chinese assets was partly due to investors looking for alternatives to the U.S. market and realizing that “the performance of certain sectors in China is not as bad as the overall economic weakness suggests”.

But overinvestment in Chinese companies could bring potential risks to Hong Kong stocks, as they “sometimes fluctuate due to policy and regulatory changes and are sometimes less transparent,” said Lam of Pantheon Macroeconomics.

Hong Kong Exchange’s database shows the exchange operator is processing more than 400 listing applications.

Sponsors told to fix ‘serious deficiencies’

Amid the surge, Hong Kong’s markets regulator, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), said in late January that it had directed 13 IPO sponsors to conduct internal reviews to “correct serious deficiencies in the preparation of listing documents”.

Relevant conduct also includes sponsor misconduct and gross mismanagement of resources.

The sponsors contacted are handling 70% of IPO applications in Hong Kong.

Earlier this month, exchange head Bonnie Chan told reporters that the review request was a “friendly reminder” from regulators.

She said that the Hong Kong Stock Exchange will continue to introduce listing rules to “support the development of the real economy.”

HKEX is also working to improve market structure and efficiency, including shortening stock clearing times, she said.

She added that the exchange operator would “carefully consider” market calls to expand the scope of confidential IPO filings. She did not provide details.

Hong Kong’s chief financial officer Paul Chan said in Wednesday’s annual budget that the exchange will continue to explore the establishment of a multi-asset post-trade securities platform to cover the equity and debt markets of mainland China and Hong Kong.

Shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange rose 0.78% on Thursday.

• Further editing by Jim Pollard, AFP

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Jim Pollard

Jim Pollard is an Australian journalist based in Thailand since 1999. He worked for News Ltd newspapers in Sydney, Perth, London and Melbourne before traveling to South East Asia in the late 1990s. He served as a senior editor at The Nation for more than 17 years.