Alibaba Considers Listing In Hong Kong

Alibaba Group Holding is considering raising US$20 billion through a second listing in Hong Kong, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing unnamed people with knowledge of the matter.

The mainland e-commerce company is working with financial advisers on the planned offering and is aiming to file a listing application in Hong Kong confidentially as early as the second half of 2019, according to the Bloomberg report.

A spokesman for Alibaba declined to comment.

Alibaba held its record US$25 billion public float in New York in 2014 after Hong Kong, its favoured venue, refused to accept its governance structure, where a self-selecting group of senior managers control the majority of board appointments.

Early last year, when Hong Kong was preparing to allow dual-class share listings, Alibaba founder Jack Ma had said that the company would “seriously consider” a listing on its exchange.

A second listing would be intended to diversify Alibaba’s funding channels and boost liquidity, according to the Bloomberg report.

The move comes as Chinese companies face an increasingly hostile U.S. government, which has put several Chinese tech companies on a blacklist. (Reuters)