The parent of China’s largest mobile payment company will pursue a simultaneous dual-listing in Hong Kong and on the Shanghai stock exchange’s STAR board, the Hangzhou-based firm said, in what promises to be one of the largest debuts in years.
The Alibaba affiliate is the latest major Chinese company to seek a listing closer to home as increased trade tensions make New York’s capital markets less desirable. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. raised $7.5 billion from a Shanghaiin July that ranks as the world’s biggest new stock offering this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Some Chinese internet firms including JD.com Inc. and NetEase Inc. have also added second listings in Hong Kong this year.
“Despite abundant capital, it is not sure how investors would view Ant Group since there are a lot of tech stocks in the market,” said Pamela Chung, a Hong Kong-based managing director and head of IPO at consultancy Tricor Group. Dual listings, once the preferred route for China’s largest corporations from banks to oil and gas producers, have since fallen out of favor in part because of the complexities involved in orchestrating share sales across very different capital regimes. Ant’s decision is a triumph for Shanghai’s fledgling STAR board, conceived with the ambition of becoming mainland China’s preferred listing destination for high-growth companies.
A dual listing also helps Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd., which is seeing a renaissance of tech listings after it relaxed rules in the wake of losing China’s biggest tech firms — including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., which owns a third of Ant — to New York.
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