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Chinese e-commerce firm JD.com files for secondary listing in Hong Kong, sources say

  • Beijing-headquartered company aims to raise US$2 billion in Hong Kong listing
  • JD.com’s move follows Alibaba’s secondary listing in Hong Kong last year

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JD.com set to deliver boost to Hong Kong’s stock market. Photo: Reuters

JD.com, one of China’s largest e-commerce sites, has applied for a secondary listing in Hong Kong, in what could be the largest fundraising exercise so far this year in the city.

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The Beijing-headquartered company lodged a confidential filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange, according to three people familiar with the matter. It could raise as much as US$2 billion via the listing, although the exact amount has yet to be finalised and would depend on the performance of JD.com’s Nasdaq-traded shares, one of the sources said.

The online shopping company is following in the footsteps of peer Alibaba Group Holding, the owner of the South China Morning Post, which raised US$12.9 billion through a secondary listing in Hong Kong in November. A JD.com spokeswoman did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
The secondary listings by Chinese technology giants are a vote of confidence in Hong Kong as a financial hub after months of anti-government protests and the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

Hong Kong trails the United States, Shanghai and Thailand in terms of proceeds raised on its exchange through IPOs so far this year, according to data from Refinitiv. At a rough estimate of US$2 billion, JD.com’s secondary listing will be the world’s third-largest initial public offering behind Beijing-Shanghai High Speed Railway’s US$4.4 billion IPO and Central Retail Corporation’s US$2.5 billion offering.

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