Continuing on our international theme from yesterday, there was a fascinating piece of infoporn in today’s NYT: IPOs by Country/Financial Capital.
Note the top 6:
1. Hong Kong
2. London
3. NY (NYSE)
4. NY (NASDAQ)
5. Amsterdam (Euronext)
6. London (AIM)
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Graphic courtesy NYT
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If you combine various locales, you get some interesting data (NYSE + Nasdaq, Hong Kong + Shanghai,
London + London AIM)
NYTimes Ubiq-cerpt:™:
Hong Kong and Shanghai are not just competing with each other — they are also vying with Tokyo and Singapore to become the most important financial center in Asia. Each wants to be the place where investment banks, hedge funds, insurance companies and other big investors send their best and brightest to oversee trading during the hours after the sun sets in New York and before it rises in London.
Each city has its strengths. Tokyo has the region’s largest stock and bond markets, although they have attracted less attention lately because they lack the appeal of the Chinese economic boom. Singapore is the main center for trading oil and other energy products, and is an important hub for currency trading.
But the most intense rivalry is between Hong Kong and Shanghai. Each strives to impress businesses and regulators that it is the best place for Chinese businesses to raise money and investors to give it to them.
It is one of the oldest rivalries in Asia, dating back more than a century. The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, these days HSBC, was started in Hong Kong on March 3, 1865, and opened for business in Shanghai a month later.
While Shanghai overshadowed Hong Kong in many ways before World War II, Hong Kong regained leadership after the Communist takeover in 1949, and benefited from the emigration of thousands of Shanghai business people. And in the 1990’s, the rise of a Shanghai faction of politicians in China, including President Jiang Zemin, resulted in many policies that favored their city."
Interesting stuff . . .
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Source:
Hong Kong and Shanghai Duel for Financial Capital
KEITH BRADSHER and DAVID BARBOZA
NYTimes, January 16, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/16/business/worldbusiness/16hong.html
Of course, what everyone but the US exchanges have is freedom from Messrs. Sarbanes and Oxley, which is one of the big reasons for the surge in HK listings….
I think the biggest beneficiary of SOX has been London.
HK is benefiting from a booming global fixation on all things China…
Umm where are the Middle East IPOs? They ran into the tens of billions last year, which would certinaly distort the rankings you have above…
The map looks rather plain in the centre !
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