Fierce debate over a proposed shake-up of Hong Kong’s listing regime has resulted in claims that detractors are turkeys scared of Christmas and even split publicly the city’s Listing Committee — the nexus of the territory’s role as the world’s largest venue for public floats.
拟议中的对香港上市制度的改革引发了激烈的辩论，这导致有人声称，批评者就像害怕圣诞节的火鸡；不仅如此，这还导致了香港交易所(HKEx)上市委员会(Listing Committee)内部的公开分歧——该委员会关系着香港作为全球最大上市发行地的地位。
Plans to reform the opaque process would shift the city’s decades-old balance of power between investors and issuers, giving the former potentially a greater say and putting the regulator at the centre of the process.
改革不透明程序的计划将改变香港几十年来投资者与发行方之间的权力平衡，可能会赋予投资者更多的发言权，并将监管机构置于上市程序的中心。
So far this year, companies have raised $22bn floating in Hong Kong, compared with $12.8bn in Shanghai and $11.7bn on the New York Stock Exchange, according to Dealogic. The city has been a top-three venue in all but one of the past 10 years.
根据Dealogic的数据，今年迄今，企业通过在香港上市筹资220亿美元。在上海和纽约证券交易所(New York Stock Exchange)，这一数字分别为128亿美元和117亿美元。在过去10年的9年里，香港一直排在全球前三大上市地之列。
The proposals were put forward jointly by the Securities and Futures Commission, the city’s regulator, and the Hong Kong Exchange. A consultation period closed on Friday.
这些改革建议是由香港证监会(Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission)与港交所联合提出的。意见征询期于上周五结束。
The scale of debate within the 28-strong listing committee itself went public last week when four members, including both deputy chairmen, published a submission broadly supporting the plans — contravening the committee’s majority-view opposition.
上周，由28位成员组成的上市委员会内部的激烈辩论被公之于众，当时有4名成员（包括两位副主席）提交了一份基本支持这些改革计划的建议书，与该委员会的多数反对意见相左。
Analogies with turkeys’ lack of support for Christmas were made in committee meetings discussing responses to the changes, according to several members.
据几名委员会成员称，该委员会在开会讨论对改革建议的回应时，有人把这些批评者比喻为不支持圣诞节的火鸡。
“Like all good turkeys, we don’t tend to support Thanksgiving or Christmas,” admitted one member, who felt the proposals complicated an already confusing process.
“与所有正常的火鸡一样，我们不愿意支持感恩节或圣诞节，”一位成员承认道，他认为改革建议把已然令人困惑的程序复杂化了。
Hong Kong’s system gives a far greater say to those with vested interests in initial public offerings, such as bankers or accountants, than is allowed in London and New York, where the regulator approves IPOs.
相对于伦敦和纽约（由监管机构批准首次公开发行(IPO)），香港的上市制度赋予了那些在IPO中拥有既得利益的人士更大的发言权，例如银行家或会计师。
Listing committee members include representatives from banks, law firms, accounting firms and listed companies. There are also eight investor representatives.
上市委员会成员包括来自银行、律师事务所、会计师事务所和上市公司的代表。还有8名投资者代表。
Those calling for change say the system, which was largely developed under colonial rule, was not designed to deal with the governance challenges posed by the influx of mainland companies that make up the bulk of those listing in Hong Kong.
支持改革的人士表示，香港上市制度基本上是在殖民地时代发展起来的，没有考虑应对中国内地公司涌入所构成的治理挑战，而中国内地公司现在占香港IPO的绝大部分。
The system’s ability to cope with this has been called into question following a series of incidents including inexplicable stock rallies and collapses as well as the use of newly listed companies as shells to help others avoid the full listings process.
在一系列事件后，该制度应对这些挑战的能力遭到质疑，这些事件包括股价莫名其妙地上扬和下挫，以及把新上市的公司作为壳公司帮助其他公司规避完整的上市程序。
Would-be public companies currently apply to the HKEx’s listing division, which refers them to the Listing Committee for approval. The SFC is also sent a copy of each application and it has a right of veto.
目前，拟上市公司要向港交所上市部门申请，该部门把申请递交给上市委员会审批。香港证监会也会得到一份申请副本，拥有否决权。
Responses to the consultation have not all been made public. Those seen by the Financial Times roughly split with investors in favour of the changes while IPO advisers are opposed.
改革建议意见征询收到的回应没有全部公开。英国《金融时报》看到的回应基本上分为两种，投资者支持改革，而IPO顾问反对。
“In Hong Kong investors are to be seen but must not be heard,” said David Webb, an independent shareholder activist, in his submission. He described the current committee as “stacked in favour of issuers and their paid advisers”.
“在香港，投资者是用来看的，但他们的声音决不能被听到，”独立股东维权人士戴维.韦伯(David Webb)在他递交的意见中表示。他认为当前的委员会“一边倒地倾向发行方和他们的付费顾问”。
The proposals would introduce two new bodies to deal with policy and regulatory issues — which sit largely with the listing committee — both of which would include the SFC as well as an investor representative as one of just three members from the listing committee.
改革建议将推出两个新的机构来解决政策和监管问题，这两个机构将基本上与上市委员会并立，都将包含香港证监会成员以及来自上市委员会的三名成员（其中一人为投资者代表）。