Hong Kong may become world's biggest biotech fund-raising center in 5 to 10 years: HKEX chief

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) Chief Executive Charles Li Xiaojia said on Tuesday that Hong Kong may become the world's largest biotechnology fund-raising center in the next five to 10 years.

Li made the remarks at the HKEX Biotech Summit 2020 held online, noting that Hong Kong is now the world's second-largest biotech fund-raising center.

Laura Cha, chairperson of the HKEX, said at the summit that the HKEX carried out a listing reform in 2018, allowing unprofitable biotech firms to list in Hong Kong, which has become Asia's largest biotech fund-raising center.

Market capitalization was 40.4 trillion HK dollars (about 5.21 trillion U.S. dollars) at the end of July 2020, up 26 percent from 32.1 trillion HK dollars for the same period last year. The average daily turnover in July 2020 was 165.1 billion Hong Kong dollars, up 140 percent from 68.7 billion Hong Kong dollars for the same period last year, according to Cha.

Although the COVID-19 epidemic has brought unprecedented challenges to Hong Kong, its capital market has shown strong resilience and vitality, Cha said.

HKEX Head of Listing Bonnie Chan said since the launch of the new listing rules by the HKEX, there have been 20 unprofitable biotech firms listed in Hong Kong, raising 48 billion HK dollars.

The HKEX will continue to improve the listing rules by working closely with the market and following the market trend, Chan added.