Hong Kong is set to reclaim its place as the world’s top fund-raising hub in 2025 as a strong pipeline of listing applications signals solid market confidence, global auditing and law firms have said.

“More than 200 firms are lining up to go public in Hong Kong, adding to a strong year for stock sales, and the initial public offering pipeline is very strong,” Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said in an interview with financial media outlet Bloomberg during his visit from New York to Washington, DC, on Thursday.

“For mainland companies going global, using Hong Kong as a platform to raise the funds and to employ the talents to help them in their overseas expansion is a very good business proposition,” the finance chief added.

Global investors are helping drive the rally — half of the trading is coming from Europe, the United States, Middle East and Asia, with the other half from Chinese mainland, he said.

The market’s revived hype has attracted major listings, including battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co and miner Zijin Gold International Co. The benchmark Hang Seng Index has gained 29 percent in 2025, among the world’s best performing developed markets.

Upon his arrival in Washington DC, Chan met with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) team responsible for conducting the Article IV Consultation on Hong Kong, during which he provided a detailed account of Hong Kong’s current economic and fiscal conditions, as well as its development directions. The finance chief is scheduled to attend the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank Group on Friday.

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Global auditing advisory firm KPMG is confident that Hong Kong will rise become to the top fund-raising hub once again this year.

“Improved valuation and liquidity are driving the Hong Kong initial public offering market, with A+H listings and Chapter 18C listings thriving amidst the city’s strong momentum. These trends are expected to continue, fueling IPO activity in the near future,” said Louis Lau, partner and head of Hong Kong Capital Markets Group at KPMG China.

The overall growth in Hong Kong’s IPO market is mainly driven by A+H listings, with 11 completed in the first three quarters, accounting for 50 percent of the total IPO funds raised, KPMG said.

Global law firm Linklaters said the Hong Kong Stock Exchange’s completed consultation on IPO price discovery and open market requirements, and the ongoing consultation for market comments on new public float regime for listed issuers, continue to strengthen Hong Kong’s position as Asia’s premier IPO hub.

During the Bloomberg interview, Chan also said HSBC Holdings will make substantial investments worth billions of dollars in Hong Kong and the Asian region as part of the lender’s proposed privatization of its subsidiary Hang Seng Bank. The investment will be spent over the next few years in areas like customer services, technology and private wealth business.

“According to what they (HSBC Holdings) have told us, there will be no layoffs,” Chan said.

The $14 billion buyout proposal, announced last week, was a rare big bet by the London-based bank, which has largely avoided such major moves over the past decade. The proposed deal has been widely seen as a response to Hang Seng Bank’s high levels of bad debt, which HSBC Holdings has been pushing the subsidiary to offload.

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Hang Seng Bank’s credit-impaired loans to the commercial real estate sector rose to HK$25 billion ($3.2 billion) as of June, up 85 percent from a year earlier. Chan said he believed Hang Seng’s book fully provided for the provisions irrespective of their loans to commercial related properties.

As to whether Hang Seng Bank could be sold at some point in the future after its privatization goes through, Chan said it was a matter for the bank to decide but that, “this has not been made known to us as a plan.”

Bloomberg contributed to this story