The way home

September 04, 2009 | BY

clpstaff &clp articles

For now, it seems impossible for HSBC Holdings and other foreign-incorporated companies to list in mainland China. Changing that will take a lot of work

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Phil Taylor

Lion on HSBC banknoteHSBC wants to go home. 144 years after the Shanghai branch of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation first opened on the Bund, the bank's parent company, HSBC Holdings, wishes to become the first foreign company to list on the Shanghai stock exchange. Hard on its heels come NYSE Euronext and Standard Chartered Bank, not to mention several large Chinese companies including China Mobile (which many think will be allowed to go first).

According to comments attributed to Shanghai's vice-mayor, a special international board at the Shanghai Stock Exchange will be launched next year. This has further fanned the flames of speculation on exactly when China will open its capital markets to overseas-registered enterprises. The media and industry interest in foreign listings in the PRC assumes one thing: foreign-incorporated companies can not list there at present. Certainly none have since modern stock trading began in 1992. But are there actually any specific legal prohibitions against them doing so?