At a press conference in Beijing, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty called the launch of a TSX office in China's capital as an 'important bridge between our respective capital markets.'JASON LEE
When the times get tough, the tough go shopping -- in China.
This time it's the Toronto Stock Exchange, which on Monday morning formally opened a representative office in Beijing to help Chinese companies prepare for listing on Canadian bourses.
"We are confident both nations, Canada and China, will have much to gain from this endeavour," said Robert Fotheringham, senior vice president of trading at the TSX's parent company, TMX Group, at an opening ceremony which featured two young women in bright red silk qipaos, recorded music, champagne for the VIPs and the unveiling of a mini-ticker encased in a large glass globe.
Canada's finance minister, Jim Flaherty, also spoke at the launch, calling it an "important bridge between our respective capital markets."
With some 55 per cent of the world's publicly traded mining companies and 35 per cent of its oil and gas companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, the hope is that Chinese companies now investing heavily in Canadian resources will also be interested in joining those ranks.
The Toronto Stock Exchange and TSX Venture Exchange already have 55 Chinese companies listed between them, most of those on the smaller venture exchange, with five of those listings from this year alone.
Among them -- still listed though frozen pending investigations by the Ontario Securities Commission and the RCMP -- is Sino-Forest, which was Canada's most valuable listed forestry company until short-seller Carson Block threw their claimed assets into question earlier this year. A thorough investigation by The Globe and Mail revealed forests that couldn't be logged, villagers who had been paid a pittance for their land and addresses named in company documents that didn't exist.
Taking a lesson from that, the Beijing TSX office is setting up education sessions and a mentorship program, to make sure ambitious Chinese companies are fully versed in the legal requirements.
"We do have a responsibility and we do feel that responsibility, so we want to make sure we bring quality companies onto the exchange," Mr. Fotheringham said after the launch. "You have to be able to offer confidence to investors. It's critical to investors. So we have a very, very serious interest in making sure these companies are properly vetted."