HKEX's Charles Li wins Lifetime Achievement award
6th October, 2020|Luke Jeffs
HKEX's decade-long chief executive said at the end of September he will retire from the post at the end of this year
Lifetime Achievement: Charles Li, chief executive officer of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing.
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing announced at the end of September that Charles Li, its long-time chief executive, will retire at the end of this year. The Asia Capital Markets Lifetime Achievement award celebrates more than ten years of success for Li and the exchange.
Li has been the charismatic leader of the Hong Kong exchange for over a decade, having celebrated his ten year anniversary in early 2020.
Li has achieved much in his time, working hard to establish Hong Kong as the international gateway to China’s vast onshore markets.
Among his many successes is the £1.4billion ($2.2 billion) acquisition of the London Metal Exchange in late 2012, making Hong Kong exchange a leading market operator in the global commodities industry.
The deal was one of the last major exchange acquisitions in a decade marked by many failed exchange mergers. More recently, Hong Kong has listed US dollar denominated London Metal mini futures, based on the flagship base metals contracts traded on the London market.
Another major achievement was the establishment of various equity and bond trading links with mainland China, cementing HKEx’s international status as the platform to mainland China.
Li, who oversaw the establishment of the first Stock Connect link between Hong Kong and Shanghai in November 2014, said this year the exchange plans to go further.
He said in early 2019: “We will move beyond spot market connectivity to derivatives, we will move beyond secondary market connect to the primary market, and we will build up our suite of products, allowing more efficient, reliable and safe capital flows between the international and Chinese markets.”
He added: “We will work to replicate the Stock Connect model for commodities trading and clearing, connect the prices of the Chinese and international commodities markets through product cross-listings and developing price benchmarks, and accelerate the internationalisation of onshore physical deliveries in China.”
Li has achieved much in his tenure and will leave the exchange well-positioned to benefit further as China opens up to international traders.
