Govt urged to relax threshold for GEM listing
The DAB party on Thursday urged the authorities to make it easier for small and medium-sized companies to list on GEM, saying there have been no new listings on the board for over two years now.     Formerly known as the Growth Enterprise Market, GEM is the second board of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing which allows small and mid-sized issuers to raise funds.  Speaking at a press conference, DAB lawmaker Rock Chen said the lack of new GEM listings is undermining Hong Kong's position as an international financial hub. Chen said the HK$30 million operating cash flow requirement has made it very difficult for start-ups to list in the SAR.  "We propose that this [threshold] should be revisited, obviously not using the old criteria and standard," he said.  "We want the Hong Kong Exchange and SFC [Securities and Futures Commission] to have a holistic review of the current approval process of listing applications, because a lot of industry practitioners and companies have told us some of the applications have taken way too long." Another DAB lawmaker, Edmund Wong, said some firms have gone elsewhere to list.  "Some of those cases have been under processing for over three years... But before they become listed... their issuers have spent a lot of money and invested a lot of professional fees and time... which also makes them believe that Hong Kong probably is not the best place for them to get listed," he said.  Wong also called on officials to relax the threshold for overseas technology start-ups to attract more companies to list in Hong Kong.