The Handbook of Board Governance, 2nd Edition

57Corporate Governance in Asia-Pacific

John Zinkin

Managing Director of Zinkin Ettinger Sdn Berhad

Introduction

This chapter explores the rising importance of Asia-Pacific; the different underlying foundations for capital markets globally; the makeup of capital markets in Asia-Pacific; the components of an ideal corporate governance (CG) ecosystem; and compares the CG regimes in Asia-Pacific.

It is tempting to assess CG through one single frame of reference, since so much of the literature views CG from an Anglo-Saxon perspective; written in English about Anglo-Saxon capital markets, which for decades represented the overwhelming majority of business capital raised through equity. There are, however, three reasons why it may no longer make sense to assess CG solely through an Anglo-Saxon worldview.

The Rise of Asia-Pacific

The first reason is the growing importance of Asia in public equity financing globally, shown in Figure 57.1.

Figure 57.2 shows the breakdown globally of IPOs in 2017. Note the relative unimportance of the United States, UK, Australia, and Canada compared with Asian markets and China.

The second reason is the use of sanctions and “national security” concerns by the United States may force Chinese companies, following the actions against China's ZTE,¹ Ant Financial,² and Huawei,³ to choose Hong Kong instead of New York:

FIGURE 57.1 Asia's Growing Importance ...