That sentiment isn’t so unusual among Asian institutional investors, and Wong happens to be head of BOCI-Prudential Asset Management, a joint venture between Bank of China and Britain’s Prudential.
But what gives Wong’s perspective a special piquancy is that he is the first institutional investor representative elected to the board of the Hong Kong stock exchange. His self-proclaimed mission: to address what he sees as unfair odds stacked against investors. Even casino impresario Stanley Ho “doesn’t make everybody who goes to Macao lose money,” jokes the 47-year-old Wong.
Saying that “as a business concern, you need to be a premium brand,” Wong would like the exchange to -- among other things -- upgrade corporate governance so it can better compete to be Southeast Asia’s No. 1 stock market. “Investors with money in both Singapore and Hong Kong do not feel that Hong Kong is a superior exchange” in all respects, he says.
Wong is especially critical of the Global Enterprise Market, which the Hong Kong exchange set up in late 1999 to raise funds exclusively for high-tech companies. “The Gem index has lost 90 percent of its value in the past three years,” he points out. He’d like to see a better class of companies admitted to Gem as well as fuller corporate disclosure.
Making innovations at the exchange will be tough. Its 13-person board has long been dominated by a small group of influential local brokers who support the status quo because it supports them. But Wong will have at least one ally in championing reforms: Private investor and high-profile shareholder activist David Webb, founder and editor of the corporate governance Web site Webb-site.com, also won a seat on the exchange’s board.
“I’m not the CEO, so there’s only so much I can do,” concedes Wong. “But rather than just complaining bitterly from the outside, I want to get the job done from the inside.”
