Hong Kong’s capital markets bounced back quickly after the initial shock of Covid-19; from the summer of 2020, the exchange has been busy with a multitude of billion-dollar trades.
That has been particularly noticeable in the equity capital markets, where total deal volume hit $161.1 billion during Asiamoney’s awards period, up from $76.8 billion for the previous 12 months, according to Dealogic data.
Haitong International Securities made sure to keep a grip on its leading position as deal flow boomed, while competing with the bulge-bracket banks, the international arms of Chinese banks and a handful of other strong securities houses.
Although Hong Kong is considered a global financial hub with one of the world’s busiest and largest stock exchanges, it has come to rely almost entirely on mainland Chinese companies for its capital markets business. Chinese investors are also a key component of the secondary market, given Hong Kong’s tie-ups with Shanghai and Shenzhen through the stock connect systems.
As one of the top brokers on both the connect schemes, Haitong competes mainly with fellow securities houses Guotai Junan Securities and Huatai Securities. The two certainly give Haitong a run for its money in the secondary market, but when it comes to primary equity deals, Haitong is miles ahead.
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