American bankers make a coin that China Inc. help go global

Copyright © HT Digital Streams Limited All rights reserved. Rory Jones , The Wall Street Journal 5 min read 16 Oct 2025, 07:12 am. IST Auto giant BYD, consumer electronics car maker Xiaomi and internet tycoon Alibaba have all raised billions of dollars via Hong Kong’s capital markets this year as well. (REUTERS) Summary The unlikely cooperation between the US and China is producing frothy markets in Hong Kong, the place where Wall Street and China Inc. meet for mutual gain. Chinese companies are pushing around the world to conquer new markets, and American financiers are making a fortune helping them. The unlikely cooperation between the US and China amid heightened trade and military tensions between the two superpowers is raising concerns on Capitol Hill about national security risks. But it produces frothy markets in Hong Kong, the place where Wall Street and China Inc. meet for mutual gain. Hong Kong’s stock exchange is the hottest globally for new listings this year. Companies have raised $23 billion in stock offerings as of September, a bright note for a city otherwise in the news for a Beijing-led national security crackdown and arrests of government critics. In September, Morgan Stanley led the $3.2 billion initial public offering in Hong Kong of Chinese mining company Zijin’s international gold mining unit. BlackRock’s funds acted as an early investor backing the deal, raising funds for the unit to buy a gold mine in Kazakhstan. “It’s truly been a spectacular year,” said Robert Chan, who helps lead equity deal execution at Citigroup in the Asia-Pacific region. The world’s largest battery maker, China-based Contemporary Amperex Technology, raised $5.3 billion in Hong Kong in May, the largest initial public offering worldwide this year. Auto giant BYD, consumer electronics maker Xiaomi and internet behemoth Alibaba have all raised billions of dollars via Hong Kong’s capital markets this year as well. Chinese companies, facing stiff competition at home, are increasingly looking abroad for growth. Although the U.S. market is struggling because of high tariffs — and President Trump has threatened an additional 100% tariff — global consumers are warming to Chinese brands and their technology, which means companies need foreign currency, such as dollars, to buy overseas assets, build factories and hire workers. Chinese companies used to go to New York to raise that money. But Beijing authorities have grown suspicious of US listings, encouraging Chinese investors to put money into the Hong Kong market instead. And U.S. stock exchanges, wary of entering politically sensitive territory, pulled out the welcome mat for China. “If you’re a Chinese company and you want to raise international capital, that’s really your only option,” George Taylor, head of Asia-Pacific investment banking at Morgan Stanley, said of Hong Kong. Politically speaking, the former British colony hardly differs from mainland China in its intolerance of dissent and anti-government speech. But in other ways it’s more like New York than Beijing. The Hong Kong dollar is pegged to and convertible with the US dollar – China’s renminbi is not – and travel between Hong Kong and the rest of the world is generally easy. Chinese tourists at Victoria Harbor in Hong Kong during China’s Golden Week holiday. The result is a reshaping of Hong Kong’s role. It used to be a gateway for international firms going to China. Now, said Han Shen Lin of the Asia Group consulting firm, “it is China’s bridge to the world.” The question in Washington is whether Wall Street should help build that bridge. US lawmakers in July subpoenaed US banks including JPMorgan and Bank of America to seek documents related to their work on CATL’s listing after the Pentagon said the battery maker was working with China’s military. The Chinese firm denied this and US banks said they had done their own due diligence. A congressional committee on China last month discussed Hong Kong’s role as an alleged money laundering and sanctions evasion hub, and as a point for Chinese companies seeking cash. A spokesman for the Hong Kong government said it was committed to preventing money laundering and terrorist financing and enforcing United Nations sanctions. Hong Kong’s capital markets are “riding on positive momentum,” and the government will implement further policies aimed at strengthening the city as a financial hub, the spokesman said. One of the speakers before the committee was Sunny Cheung, a former pro-democracy activist in Hong Kong who fled the city after Beijing tightened control. Cheung, who is now a fellow at the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation, said China’s use of Hong Kong to tap American capital could undermine American interests. “There’s no way the U.S. government wants to see more U.S. investment go in there to empower” China’s technology companies, he said. Defenders of the US presence in Hong Kong say Wall Street firms have built a profitable business there over decades, drawing a distinction between working with private-sector Chinese companies in civilian businesses and helping the Chinese government. Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are the top fundraising banks in Hong Kong based on the value of stock market deals so far this year. More than 65 companies have listed, with 200 active applications in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange’s listing pipeline. CATL, the battery manufacturer, is building a factory in Hungary. It added a Hong Kong listing to an existing one in Shenzhen, China this year, raising money from investors including funds run by UBS and Oaktree Capital Management. Online retailer Shein, popular among Americans for its bargain basement fashion, eyed a US listing before facing criticism from US lawmakers over its supply chain. After considering London, it applied for a Hong Kong IPO. A visitor photographs Hong Kong’s skyline. The city suffered from a downturn in its real estate market. The emergence this year of artificial intelligence company DeepSeek as a rival to US leaders such as OpenAI has boosted investor confidence that Chinese companies have globally competitive technology. That has helped Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index, one of the world’s best-performing markets, rise 30% this year – although the resurgence of trade tensions between the US and China has dampened gains in the past week. The Zijin gold mining stock is trading at more than double its offer price. Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick said on an earnings call in July that his bank’s performance in Asia was “quite extraordinary” as first-half revenue rose 28% to $4.6 billion in the region. Goldman Sachs reported an 8% increase in revenue from Asia in the first half compared to a year earlier. A year ago, international banks and law firms laid off staff in Hong Kong as the city lost its role as a conduit for Western investment in China. Some Chinese financial companies have cut prices for routine services and sidelined expensive Wall Street investment banks. But when it comes to raising billions from big investors in New York and London, it usually takes a Wall Street bank. For gold miner Zijin, Morgan Stanley helped bring in BlackRock plus funds managed by Fidelity International, London-based Schroders and Singaporean sovereign wealth vehicle GIC. The boom in Hong Kong finances has yet to translate into much economic growth in the rest of the city, which is still reeling under a broad slump in the local property market alongside mainland China’s property meltdown. Still, there are signs of life: Rents are ticking in the financial district and sales of luxury property are recovering, according to real estate firm Savills. In August, local media reported that the most expensive home sale of the year was a mansion on a hill that fetched 1.1 billion Hong Kong dollars, or $140 million. Write to Rory Jones at [email protected] Get all the Business News, Market News, Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download the Mint News app to get daily market updates. more topics #Hong Kong stock exchange #china Read next story