E-commerce giant Alibaba Group (BABA) — parent of Alibaba.com, China’s answer to Amazon and e-Bay — may soon opt for a secondary listing in mainland China, according to a latest report. Alibaba, which made its NYSE debut in 2014, is currently working on making its shares available to the investors in its home country, reported the Wall Street Journal. The secondary listing is expected to take place this year after the amendment in securities rules. With this dual listing, Alibaba looks to huge returns at home turf.
Early this year, Alibaba founder Jack Ma hinted at seriously planning to list the company on the Hong Kong Exchange. The Alibaba IPO in the US market raised $21.8 billion on debut; it was priced at $68 apiece then.
With plans to consolidate Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Shenzhen exchanges, we might soon see a huge Chinese stock market
China security regulators have been working on building its local financial markets. The regulators were working on simplifying the process for some major tech companies listed overseas to list their shares domestically, a part of Beijing’s strategy to reduce the growing threat of local tech companies opting for overseas listing.
Other than Alibaba, China is home to a few other tech behemoths like Baidu (BIDU) and Tencent Holdings. Companies like Baidu and Sogou Inc. (SOGO) are also working on ways to make their shares available to the Chinese investors.
China’s stock market is soon going to undergo a major change that will make it easier for Chinese investors to buy stock. Under the stock connect program, China’s stock exchanges — Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Shenzhen — are linking up to form one single China stock market that would render it the second largest by market cap.