A whistleblower from one of China’s most powerful banks says its shady dealings highlight how Hong Kong’s financial system is increasingly at the mercy of Beijing.
Listen to SupChina editor-at-large and Sinica podcast host Kaiser Kuo read this article.
The roadshow kicked off on a steamy autumn morning in Singapore. Over the course of two days, CLSA, a Hong Kong-based brokerage firm, hyped up a $250 million, three-year bond deal for CEFC China Energy Co., a huge oil and gas firm.
It was 2016, and CEFC was flying high. The company was fresh off a deal to take a stake in a Kazakhstan oil and gas company and a Czech Republic-based bank, plus the company was in the process of developing a massive oil reserve in Hainan, an island province of China.
CLSA was tasked with finding investors for CEFC’s dollar-denominated bond. And during the roadshow, bankers pushed its growth story: the company had more than $40 billion in annual revenue, 30,000 employees and had been recognized as “China’s Most Influential Company” and an “Asia Excellence Brand.” The company was also portrayed as being “closely aligned with
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