Price

Although I tend to agree with Michael Sandel and believe money cannot buy everything, we can limit our focus by considering the Hong Kong Stock Exchange a private enterprise and is all for making a profit.

In that case, on the face of it, Alibaba is a big deal, and turning away Jack Ma's offer means missing a chance of making money.

Of course, some would argue although the decision is not a favorable one at this moment, upholding the core value of HKSE may do good to the business in the long run. Very simply, since Hong Kong keep a clean hand and good reputation, more good companies will join in the future and have their stock listed here. In other words, the potential profit from Alibaba that HKSE does not materialize is not lost; it has been converted to some intangible asset.

But, hold on. How could we estimate the value of an intangible asset and compare to the quick cash that we lost? No way. The reality is, by accepting Jack's proposal, HKSE will attract a whole lot more companies with innovative ownership structure (and possibly others with a fancy financial statement or delusional accounting methodology) to do their IPO here. In other words, the intangible asset that we just alluded to may or may not be genuine, and we cannot tell.

The conclusion is, since it is impossible to determine whether the net result is gain or lost, we should make the choice by higher concerns rather than monetary considerations. Or, in layman's term, we should do whatever we feel appropriate and forget about money.