Xpeng gets the green light for Hong Kong IPO, extending city’s dual listing process to attract companies to raise capital

Xpeng, one of the three New York-listed Chinese electric carmakers, has received the green light to sell shares through a second initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong, under the city’s dual primary listing mechanism.

The Guangzhou-based carmaker received the go-ahead from the listing committee of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) for an IPO, according to a stock exchange filing on Wednesday. The timing and size of the IPO were not disclosed in the filing, but two sources said the IPO will be comparable in size to the US$1.1 billion stock sale it mounted in New York.

The stock offer, coming less than a year after Xpeng raised funds, is considered a dual primary listing, which subjects the carmaker to the regulatory oversight of both the US Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) and the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC). It is a more rigorous listing process than a secondary listing, where the regulator in the first listing venue has primacy of oversight.

The creation of the dual primary listing process adds another choice to HKEX’s service options, as it competes with New York, Shanghai and Shenzhen to be the world’s preferred IPO destination, a distinction Hong Kong has claimed in seven out of the previous 12 years. In the first quarter of this year, Nasdaq grabbed the lead from Hong Kong, with 81 listings in the three-month period, almost triple the 29 IPOs on the main board of HKEX, according to Refinitiv data.