Chinese internet firm Sina ‘planning secondary share listing in Hong Kong’
The listing is likely to take place in the fourth quarter and comes after the Hong Kong bourse changes its listing rules
Chinese web portal and social media firm Sina Corp is planning a secondary listing in Hong Kong, in what would be one of the first floats to take advantage of the city’s new rules designed to attract tech equity offerings, two sources said.
Nasdaq-listed Sina, which has a 46 per cent stake in China’s Twitter-like Weibo Corp, is working with advisers on the listing that is likely to take place in the fourth quarter, said the sources with direct knowledge of the matter.
The offering size is yet to be finalised, the sources said on condition on anonymity as the deal details were confidential.
Sina did not respond to a request for comment.
The listing plan comes after Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, (HKEX), the city’s bourse operator, loosened its rules to woo Chinese new-economy companies, including tech firms and early-stage drug developers.
Under the new rules, firms in Greater China that listed in New York or on the main board of the London Stock Exchange on or before December 15, 2017 are allowed to list in Hong Kong with their existing weighted voting rights structures – which give greater powers to founding shareholders.
This is a big shift for Hong Kong whose one-share-one-vote principle has for 30 years blocked efforts by tycoons from Li Ka-shing to Alibaba’s Jack Ma to list alternative shareholding structures.