Companies are just waiting for the right time to list in Hong Kong and will turn to the city when market conditions improve, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing CEO Bonnie Chan said on Wednesday.

At an international innovation forum on Wednesday, Chan said 73 initial public offerings (IPOs) were completed in Hong Kong last year, down from 90 in 2022.

She said issues including an adverse macroeconomic environment and geopolitical tensions have affected markets globally, but many firms are still interested in a Hong Kong listing.

"I think a lot of them are still very keen to do the IPO and provide that exit venue for their pre-IPO investors," she said.

"However, they just don't want to sell their stock cheaply. What we saw last year was, in a lot of cases, companies were still going ahead with their listing, but they tried to do a smaller IPO, and they're just waiting for the right conditions to arrive and then they can do their follow-on offering.”

Chan added, however, that she has noticed more companies have been choosing to list in their domestic market.

"I don't know whether this is because of nationalism, or if Covid actually had a part to play because travelling wasn't that easy… However, as these companies continue to grow, they may reach a point where they need to tap deeper markets, and they may actually find that their domestic markets may not be able to support their fundraising needs," she said.

"And that's when they look to other global exchanges to do their second listing or their dual primary listing.”

Chan said Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing has "planted many seeds" by signing agreements with different exchanges around the world, and believes the SAR will be able to capture opportunities when market conditions improve.