Canada’s presence in Beijing grew Monday with the opening of a TMX Group representative office in the Chinese capital.
TMX is the parent of the Toronto Stock Exchange and TSX Venture Exchange. The Beijing opening is the bookend of a year that included TMX opening an office in London.
Finance minister Jim Flaherty was a special guest at the Beijing ceremony, where he called the opening “an important bridge between our respective capital markets and brings our market participants closer together.”
TMX plans to offer enhanced service to new and existing Chinese clients.
The opening came less than a week after the Globe and Mail reported that the RCMP is investigating Sino-Forest.
The company was a star on the TSX board until August when the Ontario Securities Commission halted trading. A Muddy Waters Research report claimed Sino-Forest was involved in a massive stock fraud by overstating its Chinese land holdings. Sino-Forest was worth $5 billion at its peak.
The New York Stock Exchange was the first foreign exchange to open an office in Beijing four years ago. Vice-premier Wu Yi, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg attended that historic ceremony.
Bob Mackin