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HONG KONG, China — China's No. 2 online retailer JD.com Inc has filed for a second Hong Kong listing, hot on the heels of NetEase Inc.'s $2.7 billion share sale in the city, as the U.S.-listed firms seek a foothold closer to home amid rising U.S.-China tensions.
JD.com filed a preliminary prospectus on Friday with the Hong Kong stock exchange, which doesn’t contain any share sale details. The company could launch the offering to raise at least $2 billion as soon as next week, Bloomberg News has reported. The filing comes on the same day online gaming firm NetEase told prospective investors it was planning to price its Hong Kong listing at HK$123 each.
Escalating tensions between Washington and Beijing are increasing risks for Chinese companies like JD and NetEase who seek to broaden their investor base. U.S. capital markets are becoming frosty toward Chinese firms, and there have been fears over the impact of national security legislation set to be imposed on Hong Kong, including the resumption of protests in the city.
The twin debuts would follow Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s $13 billion Hong Kong stock sale last year, hailed as a homecoming for Chinese companies and a win for the Hong Kong stock exchange, which lost many of the largest tech corporations to U.S. bourses because it didn’t allow dual-class share voting at the time — a requirement that’s since been relaxed.
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Bank of America, UBS Group and CLSA are joint sponsors of JD’s Hong Kong share sale.
By: Julia Fioretti
