MAINLAND-BASED traders will be able to invest in Hong Kong-listed technology giants including Xiaomi Corp. and Meituan Dianping starting July, when the companies’ dual-class listing structures will no longer make them off limits to mainland investors.

“After long discussions between the Hong Kong exchange and the China Securities Regulatory Commission, we agreed that in July weighted-voting rights shares will be included” in the stock connects between the mainland and Hong Kong, the city’s Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury James Lau said after a visit to the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Monday.

China’s decision last year to exclude so-called dual-class shares from the connects initially sent the newly listed Xiaomi tumbling. Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd.’s (HKEX) years-long push for weighted-voting rights, which enable founders to keep control even after going public, was in part based on the idea that mainland technology firms would choose to list in Hong Kong over the United States because onshore investors would have easy access via the stock connect.

The Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong exchanges have agreed on a detailed arrangement in December to include shares with unequal voting rights in the southbound stock connect.

Dual-class shares, which typically give one set of shareholders greater voting rights than others, have been favored by many owners of new age industries such as technology, with the extra voting power given to top executives seen as protection against pressure for short-term returns.

But they have also come in for criticism from corporate governance advocates, who have warned of its potential abuse by company insiders. Hong Kong’s proposed changes came as a series of hotly anticipated mainland tech groups are considering their options for listing.

In spite of Hong Kong’s role as the world’s biggest equity capital-raising center for four of the last 10 years, it has fallen well behind New York, its arch-rival, in the battle for hot tech stocks and other growth sectors.

Just 3 percent of Hong Kong listings in the past decade, by market value, have been so-called “new economy” companies, compared with 47 percent for the New York Stock Exchange, according to the HKEX.(SD-Agencies)