Last October, Hong Kong’s highest-ranking financial minister trooped to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital city and the home of the Tadawul, its stock exchange. Surrounded by Saudi officials, Paul Chan pressed a button to launch the Middle East’s largest exchange-traded fund. The new ETF has $1.2 billion in assets under management, tracking 30 sharia-compliant companies that trade in the Chinese city. (One company that was excluded? Megabank HSBC, for charging interest.)
Chan and several of his peers, including Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing CEO Bonnie Chan (no relation), are now regular visitors to the Middle East as the Chinese city tries to build ties with new sources of capital in the Gulf.
