Bestbond, a Chinese apartment rental company, had been planning on a Nasdaq flotation in one to two years but as US-China trade tensions ratcheted higher, the Hong Kong stock exchange emerged as a possible candidate. Now, it's firmly on the table.
While a US Treasury official has said Trump's administration was not considering blocking Chinese companies from U.S. listings"at this time", the possibility it may do so has resulted in much handwringing by mainland firms that had been looking at a US IPO. Lin believes, however, that Trump's threat would be extremely difficult to implement legally and is merely a negotiation tactic in the rapidly escalating trade war between the world's two biggest economies.
Shen said he's increasingly taking his portfolio tech startups to list on China's newly launched STAR Market instead of the Nasdaq. The Guangzhou, southern China-based asset manager focuses on investing in Chinese firms that have listed or are seeking to list in the United States, making its business model particularly vulnerable to slumps in those valuations.