When Yan Jun was looking around last year for a stock market to raise capital for his Beijing-based traffic-control software company, the engineer and chairman thought he was spoiled for choice.
He could sell shares of his 10-year-old company AICT on one of the three mainland exchanges – Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen – that together make up the world’s second-biggest capital market, with a combined value of US$10 trillion, according to Bloomberg data.
New York – a welcoming possibility at first – lost its appeal early this year when US President Donald Trump unleashed a new wave of trade hostilities and animosity towards Chinese companies.
In the end, the choice was clear: Hong Kong won because of its access to “international capital and strong connectivity to global markets”, Yan said. The city, where he earned his doctorate in business administration, would also be the launching pad for his business abroad, he added.
Yan is not alone. Since the summer of 2024, a series of mainland companies have made similar calculations and turned to Hong Kong’s stock exchange for capital infusions.
