HONG KONG: Financial houses in the special administrative region are quickening their pace to enter the mainland''s fledging but fast-growing futures market by wooing local partners.

Taifook Securities Group, a leading local broker, is in talks with two mainland futures companies to form a joint venture (JV).

"The JV will start operation by the end of this year," Peter Wong, Taifook''s chief executive officer, told China Daily. And Taifook would hold a 49 per cent stake in the JV, the maximum under mainland regulations.

Taifook started its business on the mainland in 1993 and decided to diversify into the futures sector last year.

Hantec Investment Holdings, another financial powerhouse in Hong Kong, is also holding talks with mainland futures firms on a similar co-operation. Its Chairman Tang Yu-lap said it planned to invest HK$10 million (US$1.28 million) in the mainland''s futures market.

Neither of them named any of the potential partners.

But the first Hong Kong-mainland futures JV, between Sun Hung Kai Financial Group (SHKF) and Zhejiang-based Yongan Futures Broker, is to begin its operations in Hong Kong in one or two months, said Joseph Tong, chief operating officer of SHKF.

The JV will allow mainland investors to invest in Hong Kong''s futures market and will also open up mainland opportunities for SHKF, Tong said.

Hong Kong brokers'' expansion plans come after the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the market watchdog, allowed them to form JVs with mainland players a year ago. The green light was given under the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement, a free trade agreement that grants economic privileges to Hong Kong companies.

The move, analysts said, will help Hong Kong brokers establish a competitive edge in the only financial sector where the mainland did not make any commitment during its entry to the World Trade Organization in late 2001.

"Hong Kong securities firms certainly have advantages in this respect because they are very experienced and well-developed in a market with plenty of derivative products," said Ronald Wan, head of investment banking at Softbank Investment International.

Their competitiveness would be put to good use when the mainland launches a variety of futures products such as index, currency and interest rate futures.

As for commodity futures, Wan said this is the weak point of Hong Kong securities firms as the city lacks a developed commodity exchange.

Therefore, they would not be heavily engaged in commodity trading at the initial stage, Wan said. - China Daily