Charles Li, Chairman of JPMorgan China, assesses country's capital markets and offers career philosophy.
Charles Li, chairman of JPMorgan China, in a recent speech to students at the Guanghua School of Management of Peking University, described China’s capital market as a “pressure cooker” due to its rapid development over the past 18 months, that would neither collapse nor sustain endless growth, but would likely fall “somewhere in between.”
Li’s remarks, hosted by Zhang Weiying, president of Guanghua School of Management, and a noted scholar in his own right, were before an audience of 300 students.
In his pressure cooker analogy, Li said no one really knows how high the pressure and temperature can reach, and very few dare to open it, which implies that no one knows how high China's stock market will go. For now, the government has yet to take concrete steps to cool it off. “Moving forward, the market will neither collapse nor sustain endless growth, but it will end up somewhere in between,” Li said. In addition, the heavy concentration of retail investors in China's capital market adds to the underlying risk, because retail investors are less tolerant of market swings than institutional investors.
On career development, Li noted that students at China's prestigious universities are very fortunate to have choices and options. “When you open one door, you will find several others from which to choose,” he said. However, Li stressed, it is important to maintain a “healthy want” in this multiple-choice era, meaning students should “seriously think through what makes them happy and spend time enjoying what they've achieved.”
Li’s insights into China's capital market and his advice to the students about pursuing their careers impressed the attendees who indicated they would like to invite him back in 2008. |