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Christine Chan

Huang Guixian , as one of China's first generation of investment bankers, helped to kick off the country's stock market experiment.

  The Shanghai-born native of Guangdong province, who turns 69 this year, has spent most of his working life in corporate finance yet his enthusiasm for the sector still grows each day.

  After a humble start as a teller at the now-defunct Bank of Canton in 1946, his career has followed a path as dazzling and unpredictable as the country's stock market reforms.

   As chief of the Shanghai Industrial and Commercial Bank of China's Trust and Investment Co (ICBCTI) from its establishment in 1982, Mr Huang helped to pull off China's first public share offering in 1984, by Shanghai Feile Acoustics, and its listing in 1986.

  The feat continued as he became the deputy chief of Shanghai Shenyin Securities - the successor to Shanghai ICBCTI - which underwrote China's first foreign-currency, or B-share, offering by Shanghai Vacuum Electronics Devices in 1992.

  Now Mr Huang is the consultant to the management office of China's largest brokerage, Shenyin & Wanguo Securities, the result of a merger between Shanghai Shenyin Securities and Shanghai International Securities last year.

  In a seeming confirmation of his role in share offerings in China, Mr Huang appeared on television to counter criticisms of the 1986 listing of Feile Acoustics shares, in a 12-part documentary series praising Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms.

  He recalled the stock offer, which captured the mainland's imagination, saying: 'It happened by accident, but with the most unexpected consequences.'   The offering came against a backdrop in the early 1980s of companies starting to issue shares to employees. Their purpose was to raise funds to set up subsidiaries to run canteens, motels and the like.

  The aim was to better allocate their resources and redirect surplus labour that could not be laid off.

  'We thought that as companies could sell shares to their employees, they might as well sell them to the public,' he said.

  The Feile Acoustics offer was a roaring success - setting a precedent for future public share offerings.

  'Investors' interest in the offer was marvellous. The shares were quickly sold out. Even Japan's top brokerage Nomura Securities sent experts to Shanghai to see what was going on in China,' he said.

  Several other issues followed.

  The most memorable experiences of Mr Huang's 51-year working life relate to a tiny counter at Shanghai ICBCTI's Jingan office.

  The counter, which lay at the centre of a highly publicised nationwide debate, was the predecessor of China's stock listing venue.

   It was set up in 1986 after the then Shanghai Party Secretary chief Jiang Zemin - now China's President - threw his backing behind it.

  'The counter was probably the world's smallest, but it received the most high-profile visitors, including the Queen of Britain and chiefs of the New York and the London stock exchanges.

  'I remember when the New York Stock Exchange chief John Phelan visited us in 1986. He said: 'The US began stock trading on the streets without any offices. Now you have an office. That's much better than us. You should have good prospects'. I was really touched.'   Mr Huang's confidence was also bolstered by the visit of London Stock Exchange chief Sir Nicholas Goodison.

  Sir Nicholas presented a painting of the London Stock Exchange's humble early days, on which he had written a quotation from the famous Chinese scholar Lao Zi: 'Big trees grow from small.'   'We were stunned. We just couldn't believe that a foreigner could understand that Chinese ideology. That impressed me greatly,' he said.

  At 68, Mr Huang continues to be as ardently enthusiastic about his career as ever.

  'There are big prospects for China's investment banking business - it is probably the most promising sector in the country's financial circle.

  'Sophistication and a scientific approach should be adopted for future development.'   Having postponed his retirement repeatedly for years, the indefatigable veteran apparently refuses to cut his links with the sector, despite occasional health problems.

  However, that could change next February when his term of office as a member of the Shanghai standing committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference expires.

  Mr Huang was appointed to the standing committee to represent the city's financial services sector through his position at Shanghai Shenyin Securities.

  The expiry of his term could spell the beginning of his retirement, although he indicated he might take up a new stock market-related job.

  In the meantime, he has more time to spend on his flowers and plants, or visiting his two sons and elder sister who have emigrated to Toronto. He also has a daughter in Shanghai.

   After spending most of his life in Shanghai, Mr Huang still leads a Cantonese style of life.

  'Although I was born in Shanghai, I am a de facto Cantonese. My wife is a Cantonese. I like Cantonese food and I go to the Cantonese restaurant for tea on Sundays.'   Even his musical tastes are home-grown - he buys Cantonese CDs when in Hong Kong.



Enduring appetite of a stock pioneer