Baidu, the Chinese tech giant, has secured approval from the Hong Kong stock exchange for a second listing in the city state. The listing could help the company raise ~$3.5bn as early as this month. As per its annual report released on February 17, its net income in 2020 grew to CNY 22.5bn ($3.44bn) from CNY 2.1bn ($0.32bn) in 2019. CLSA and Goldman Sachs would be the underwriters on the secondary listing. Alibaba Group Holdings set a trend to list in Hong Kong in late-2019 after Chinese companies’ access to the American markets came under threat after passage of a US bill requiring more accountability from the companies listed in the US amid deteriorating relations between US and China. The listing in HK also enables companies based in SE Asia to expand their investor base close to home. A record $9.6bn has been raised thus far via IPOs in Hong Kong this year across 22 deals including the Tencent-backed Kuaishou, whose IPO (~$5.3bn) bagged almost half the amount. Other companies including Chinese video sharing website, Bilibili, could also follow to raise ~$3bn.
Baidu’s 2.375% 2030s and 3.425% 2030s were down 1.11 and 1.04 to trade at 98.12 and 106.57 on the secondary markets.
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