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This is the first time CEO Charles Li has sold shares in Hong
Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd (HKEX) <0388.HK> during his nine
years in the job.
The exchange operator has had a turbulent year. The company made
an unsolicited $39 billion dollar bid for the London Stock
Exchange <LSE.L>, in September. But the company was forced to
withdraw the bid a month later after failing to convince LSE's
management and investors to back the move.
HKEX's trading volumes and initial public offerings fell over
the summer as Hong Kong was hit by months of anti-government
protests.
But two multi-billion dollar listings in the autumn, Budweiser's
Asia Pacific operations' <1876.HK> IPO and Alibaba's <9988.HK>
secondary listing helped to push the exchange higher in
fundraising league tables.
The Hong Kong exchange is in third place in global rankings for
IPO fundraising this year, having raised $24.2 billion, behind
Nasdaq and Riyadh, based on Refinitiv data. Riyadh's exchange
recently launched the up-to $29 billion IPO of Saudi oil company
Aramco.
Refinitiv league tables do not include secondary listings. If
the Alibaba listing were included, Hong Kong would have topped
the chart with $37.1 billion.
Li sold 650,000 HKEX shares at an average price of HK$256.53
($32.90) a share on December 18, the exchange filing showed,
bringing his stake down to 0.03% from 0.08%. HKEX did not say
why Li had sold the shares.
His current CEO contract runs until October 2021.
($1 = 7.7977 Hong Kong dollars)
($1 = 7.7971 Hong Kong dollars)
(Reporting by Alun John and Twinnie Siu. Editing by Jane
Merriman)
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