The future of regulatory competition remains uncertain – where do regulated weighted voting rights come into the picture?

23 Aug 2022 

By Hanna Jez 

 

CIBEL member Associate Professor Xiaochuan (Charlie) Weng recently co-authored a research article entitled ‘Regulating Weighted Voting Rights in Asia: Pragmatism or a Race to the Bottom?’ with Associate Professor Huiqin Jiang from the Zhejiang Sci-Tech University School of Law and Politics and Assistant Professor Casey Watters of the Bond University Faculty of Law. 

Charlie, Huiqin, and Casey explore the structure of weighted voting rights (WVR) and the corporate control companies who employ WVR ultimately attain by being granted access to them. 

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the Singapore Exchange - the two financial centres of the Asian continent - have recently introduced weighted voting rights listing rules which aim to safeguard the two stock exchanges. Hong Kong and Singapore’s listing rules differ from one another and both countries have employed their own protections which to some degree ensures the longevity of regulatory competition. After considering the listing rules,  the authors conclude that further reforms must be considered to protect shareholder rights and provide company investors with the confidence  to maintain alliances with companies and attract new investors to the scene. 

‘Regulating Weighted Voting Rights in Asia: Pragmatism or a Race to the Bottom?’ has been published in the 52nd volume of the Hong Kong Law Journal. 

The paper is available here.  

Associate Professor Xiaochuan Weng’s research may be found at SSRN and the UNSW website