ICBC rhapsody

How many would be interested in reading word by word the prospectus of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China which is thick as a Yellow page? However, its circulation has exceeded Harry Porter, the bestseller.

With the English and Chinese versions printed separately, the document for the initial public offering (IPO) of the bank has been halved. With eIPO subscription method in place, the printing volume of the document has been reduced to below 260,000 copies, the volume of the prospectus for Bank of China listed last June.

Still, a record of about 1 million Hong Kong people have subscribed to the shares.

It is believed an overwhelming minority of them have read the offering document of a stock on which they bet at least HK$3,000, the per lot price, before they made the investing decision.

The very expensive, mostly printed and most widely distributed yet least read book on Earth is it.

As many as 1 to 1.5 million people voted in the Legislative Council election in 2004 in Hong Kong. Democratic activists in this island city have found it a headache to prove to the SAR and Beijing leaders that people want the legislature and head of government be returned by universal suffrage. It is difficult to do it in a massive scale and to ensure fairness, finish the counting process within a short period of time.

Today, a big bank’s IPO is probably more universal than an election through universal suffrage and hence an ideal way to gauge public views.

So, would a "convenient truth" about what is in the ordinary people's mind have been secured if a referendum had been conducted by inserting in the prospectus, together with the ICBC subscription form, a form for citizens to tick either one of the boxes of agreeing or disagreeing with fully directly electing the LegCo and HKSARCE? How about adding this question online after the banks or brokers asking clients if they need margin financing to boost their IPO subscription – instant and nearly effortless? Or to measure by result, the more the new stock rises on its debut, the more the support people have for direction election, and vice versa?

Doesn't it sound more accurate than ten university opinion surveys, each with 1,000 samples?

Furthermore, to be fair with our mainland counterparts, the exercise should be extended to the vast mainland where a much bigger size of the ICBC listing as an A share is being carried out. Let people get a feel of democracy through an IPO – a magical idea aspires to surpass the UK and catch up with the USA (超英趕美), also a goal set by former chairman Mao decades ago.

All in all, autumn is almost gone. It's time to sing a late 2006 rhapsody. To create ballot boxes at the receiving banks is as difficult as opening an ICBC branch on Pluto.