Cornering the market

IN ARCHITECTURE, a cornerstone is laid where two walls meet, serving as a single point from which the building takes its shape. No one constructs an entire building out of these weighty slabs. So it is meant to be in finance. To perk up interest in initial public offerings (IPOs), companies sometimes invite in “cornerstone investors”: a small number of big investors who promise to buy a stake and hold it for a while, a vote of confidence from which the IPO takes shape. Odd, then, to see a trend in Hong Kong of IPOs constructed almost entirely out of these weighty pledges.
The latest is the... read more