Charles Li Xiaojia, chief executive of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, will step down from the post when his contract expires in October next year.
HKEX said on Thursday Li has decided not to seek reappointment after a decade at the helm of the city’s bourse operator, which runs Asia's third-largest stock exchange by market capitalization
HKEX said on Thursday
Li has decided not to seek reappointment after a decade at the helm of the
city’s bourse operator, which runs Asia's third-largest stock exchange by
market capitalization.
Li, 59, took over
from Paul Chow Man-yiu as HKEX’s chief executive in January 2010. He had
previously served as chairman of JP Morgan China, and managing director and
president of Merrill Lynch International (China).
Before starting his
career as an investment banker, Li had worked as a Beijing-based editor and
reporter for China Daily from 1984 to 1986.
HKEX said it has
formed a selection committee, headed by its Chairperson Laura Cha Shih
May-lung, to find a successor to Li.
The announcement
comes as HKEX posted a 13 percent drop in net profit to HK$2.3 billion for the
first quarter of this year, compared with HK$2.6 billion a year ago.
Hong Kong topped the
global rankings in terms of the number of initial public offerings issued in
the first the first three months of 2020, with 39 new listings. The amount of
IPO funds raised hit HK$14.4 billion – the fourth-highest worldwide.
In a statement,
Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po praised Li for his “exemplary
contributions” to Hong Kong’s financial market during his tenure at HKEX in the
past decade.
HKEX’s share price lost 2.76 percent to HK$246.40 on Thursday, while the benchmark Hang Seng Index edged down 156 points, or 0.65 percent, to close at 23,980.63.
