China’s tycoons are flooding Hong Kong’s exchange with US$20 billion of new listings.
While the territory’s rich are preparing for a worst-case scenario amid controversial national security legislation, major mainland billionaires are coming in, such as William Ding (丁磊) of NetEase Inc (網易) and JD.com Inc’s (京東) Richard Liu (劉強東), whose companies last month completed secondary listings there.
They follow Jack Ma (馬雲), whose Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) stock issuance in November last year was the territory’s largest since 2010.
Together, the three moguls’ firms have raised US$20 billion from share sales in Hong Kong, and that might be just the start of a new wave of listings by mainlanders.
“Chinese billionaires’ tech companies are helping the capital market in Hong Kong for a pivotal change and secure its Asia financial hub status,” Deloitte China southern region managing director Edward Au said. “The city’s stock exchange is also trying to make it a more appealing destination for new-economy companies.”
The national security legislation that was approved on Tuesday is threatening to erode Hong Kong’s judicial independence from China, a key part of the territory’s appeal to international companies and investors.
The US has already started to make it harder to export sensitive US technology to Hong Kong, and the US House of Representatives passed a bill imposing sanctions on banks that do business with Chinese officials involved in cracking down on pro-democracy protesters.
While Chinese billionaires have myriad reasons for pursuing listings there — including a less welcoming political environment in the US — their choice of Hong Kong over alternatives on the mainland might help ease concerns that the territory risks losing its status as a financial center.
Chinese tech tycoons with companies trading in Hong Kong now have a combined net worth of US$182 billion, more than the 10 richest people in Hong Kong, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
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