Banker Shortage Pressures Hong Kong Firms Handling IPO Boom


Bloomberg
Bloomberg

Hong Kong firms are on the hunt for more bankers to lead a booming pipeline of initial public offering deals after a years-long dry spell depleted the ranks of qualified staffers.

Banks are hard pressed to meet regulatory guidelines and are under increased scrutiny over the quality of IPO paperwork. The stock exchange and the Securities and Futures Commission recently sounded the alarm to 13 investment banks that handle more than 70% of the over 430 active listing applications. They highlighted the insufficient capacity among principal bankers to supervise deals, with some simultaneously helming as many as 19.

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Hong Kong is in the midst of an IPO boom, with first-time share sales coming off a four-year high in 2025 and already off to the busiest-ever start of a year. But the upswing followed a dealmaking trough that lasted several years after a crackdown on the Chinese technology companies that powered a prior wave of transactions. As a result, some banks chose to retrench and experienced bankers often looked for opportunities elsewhere. That’s made the remaining high-level dealmakers hot commodities.

“The imbalance is a bit more severe than it has been in quite a while,” said John Mullally, managing director for Hong Kong at recruitment firm Robert Walters PLC. “For the first time in a while, there’s greater demand for a certain type of talent.”

To be sure, the steep pickup in dealmaking has been a windfall for banks in the city, albeit with declining fee rates. The top five arrangers of Hong Kong IPOs last year — China International Capital Corp., Citic Securities Co., Huatai Securities Co., GF Securities Co. and Bank of China Ltd. — were all Chinese banks and handled $14.6 billion worth of deals, or 37% of the market. It’s unclear which of them, if any, were on the list of banks singled out by regulators.

Major deals in the pipeline for this year include the potential listings of Chinese-owned agricultural technology giant Syngenta Group, A.S. Watson Group, a beauty retailer owned by CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd. and Kunlunxin, the artificial-intelligence chip unit of Baidu Inc. Listing proceeds are on track for a six-year high of $45 billion in 2026, according to KPMG.

Every Hong Kong IPO requires a “signing principal” who needs to demonstrate years of experience, substantial involvement in advising deals and have passed several exams. To qualify, a banker needs to have served as a “responsible officer” who supervises what the SFC defines as regulated activities.



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