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Reuters
Reuters
HONG KONG (Reuters Breakingviews) – Small is beautiful. Hong Kong’s former stock market Chief Executive Charles Li, key driver of the wildly successful bilateral Stock Connect programme between mainland Chinese bourses and Hong Kong, is kickstarting an asset exchange in Macau. Micro Connect, which he founded last year in Hong Kong, allows global investors to buy “equity-like products” to finance enterprises in China in exchange for a share of daily revenue. According to the announcement on Monday, the initiative specifically targets offline stores and retail operators.
Given Li’s experience running Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing’s HK$26 trillion ($3.35 trillion) securities market, his entry is a coup for Macau, which is increasingly desperate to diversify beyond gambling into finance. Revenue from casinos is down 85% so far this year compared with 2019.
However, Micro Connect has invested in 1,800 small businesses. The only other exchange in the territory is the Chongwa Financial Asset Exchange for bonds, founded in 2018. Talk of a yuan-based stock exchange has yet to bear fruit. Macau, which sits outside China’s capital controls like Hong Kong, may want to compete with its neighbour, but it has a long way to go. (By Katrina Hamlin)
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