Hong Kong exchange’s biggest reform in 8 years opens gates to more IPOs

Stock exchange operator Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) will allow all listing applications to remain confidential and will reduce market-capitalisation requirements for listings by start-ups and international firms immediately, it announced on Friday.Confirming a report by the South China Morning Post, HKEX will proceed with confidential filing as it proposed in March in its biggest set of listing reforms since 2018.The exchange will also reduce the market-cap requirements for weighted voting right (WVR) companies to HK$20 billion (US$2.6 billion), from HK$40 billion currently. It will also lower the thresholds for a company using the Revenue Test to HK$6 billion in market capitalisation and HK$600 million in revenue in the most recent financial year, compared with HK$10 billion in market cap and HK$1 billion in revenue now.