Editorial | HKEX success in putting women on boards a boon to Hong Kong
Progress on boardroom diversity is an encouraging sign that the city is on track to better tap the potential of half of its population
HKEX said fewer than 10 of Hong Kong’s roughly 2,600 listed companies had all-male boards as of the end of June. The exceptions were firms suspended from trading or temporarily out of compliance because of a resignation.
At the start of the year, when an HKEX ban on single-gender boards went into effect, there were still 85 companies with all-male boards. When the policy was announced in 2022, more than 800 firms – or 40 per cent of listed companies – had no female directors.
More than 21 per cent of the directors today are women. While that lags behind the global average of 27 per cent of board seats held by women as of 2024, the city is in good company with a sizeable number of markets around the world now using mandates and deadlines to push for change.
Katherine Ng, head of listing at HKEX, said the requirement had “enhanced governance in our markets”. Bonnie Chan Yiting, HKEX’s first female chief executive officer, said diversity “brings more ideas, more perspectives into boardroom discussions”.