Following Tencent’s lead, smaller listed companies band together to grow in Hong Kong

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‘Many Hong Kong small and medium-sized listed companies face a lot of challenges,’ guild chairman says

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A man passed Tencent headquarters in Shenzhen. Photo: AFP

Enoch Yiu

Published: 8:00pm, 9 Oct 2024

A group of smaller listed companies are joining together to highlight the challenges they face and help other firms to use the Hong Kong stock market to raise funds and capture new business opportunities.

The Hong Kong Small and Medium Listed Companies Association is a non-profit industry body formed by a group of businesspeople who wanted to provide more robust information and support to small and medium-sized companies seeking to flourish in Hong Kong, according to chairman Wilson Sea.

“Many Hong Kong small and medium-sized listed companies face a lot of challenges,” Sea said. “We would like this association to help them use Hong Kong’s capital markets to raise funds so they can become bigger players in the future.”

Tencent Holdings is a great example of a company that used the Hong Kong stock market to grow, Sea said. The Shenzhen-based tech company had a market capitalisation of just HK$370 million (US$47.6 million) when it listed in 2004, but two decades on, it is the largest Hong Kong-listed firm with a market value of more than HK$4 trillion.

Sea, who is also chairman and executive director of China First Capital Group, said he experienced growing pains when his financial firm went public.

“Our company was listed in Hong Kong in 2011, but there was not much turnover as we were not well known,” Sea said. “As such, seeking post-listing financing was difficult.”

By 2015, the company had become more sophisticated thanks to operating experience, he said, which helped it to draw new investors and fresh capital.