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Two months after Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong’s leader John Lee has followed in his footsteps by taking a sizable entourage to the kingdom.
Lee, who wrapped up a two-day trip to Saudi on Monday, made it clear his goal is to persuade oil giant Saudi Aramco to list in the financial hub despite competition from rivals such as New York and London. Such a move would be a major victory for Lee, who, since taking power in July, has focused on reopening Hong Kong after years of pandemic isolation battered the city’s economy and reputation.
Aramco has a market capitalization of about $1.9 trillion, more than four times that of Tencent Holdings Ltd., the most valuable stock on the Hong Kong exchange. Securing such a listing would not only add much-needed diversity to the China-dominated bourse, which has seen $2.3 trillion erased in the past two years as global investor confidence in the country collapsed, but also further Xi’s aims of deepening ties with the Gulf.
“When China is thinking about new partners, new allies, it’s seeking to use Hong Kong more from the financial perspective,” said Dongshu Liu, assistant professor specializing in Chinese politics at the City University of Hong Kong. “If you’re taking about financial cooperation between those countries, a big hub is needed.”
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