E-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) yesterday said it would seek a primary listing in Hong Kong, potentially giving access to China’s vast pool of investors, as Chinese officials indicate a long-running crackdown on the tech sector could be coming to an end.
The move also comes as Chinese tech companies traded in New York grow increasingly worried about a regulatory drive by US authorities amid simmering tensions between the superpowers.
While Alibaba has a secondary listing in Hong Kong, that does not allow it to join a popular Stock Connect program that links to bourses in Shanghai and Shenzhen.
Photo: Reuters
The primary listing, which is expected to take place before the end of the year, would open that door.
News of the plan sent shares in Alibaba soaring more than 5 percent yesterday, boosting other tech firms and helping drag the broader Hang Seng Index higher.
Alibaba chief executive officer and group chairman Daniel Zhang (張勇) said the primary listing aimed to foster “a wider and more diversified investor base to share in Alibaba’s growth and future, especially from China and other markets in Asia.”
“Hong Kong is also the launch pad for Alibaba’s globalization strategy, and we are fully confident in China’s economy and future,” Zhang said.
Alibaba said it had an average daily trading volume of US$3.2 billion in the US in the first six months of the year, while its Hong Kong secondary listing saw about US$700 million.
Hong Kong’s Stock Connect program enables firms to take advantage of liquidity from China for easier financing and higher valuations, but to qualify they must conduct a majority of their annual trading in the Chinese finance hub.
Alibaba is among a category of “innovative” Chinese firms with weighted voting rights or variable interest entities that would be eligible for dual-primary listing in Hong Kong, following a rule change by the bourse in January.
The move would be “massive” for Alibaba, said Forsyth Barr Asia Ltd analyst Willer Chen (陳偉樂), adding that inclusion in Stock Connect could lead to a “more diversified investor base.”
Beijing has opposed an attempt by US regulators to inspect the audit papers of Chinese firms listed there, and Alibaba is among 250 companies that face potential removal if no deal is reached.
Domestically, Alibaba is still reeling from the tech crackdown as well as China’s slowing economy caused by the fallout from strict COVID-19 curbs.
The firm has lost about two-thirds of its value since a 2020 peak, Bloomberg said, and in May the firm reported that profit fell 59 percent in the past fiscal year.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that its investment plan in Arizona is going according to schedule, following a local media report claiming that the company is planning to break ground on its third wafer fab in the US in June. In a statement, TSMC said it does not comment on market speculation, but that its investments in Arizona are proceeding well. TSMC is investing more than US$65 billion in Arizona to build three advanced wafer fabs. The first one has started production using the 4-nanometer (nm) process, while the second one would start mass production using the
A TAIWAN DEAL: TSMC is in early talks to fully operate Intel’s US semiconductor factories in a deal first raised by Trump officials, but Intel’s interest is uncertain Broadcom Inc has had informal talks with its advisers about making a bid for Intel Corp’s chip-design and marketing business, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Nothing has been submitted to Intel and Broadcom could decide not to pursue a deal, according to the Journal. Bloomberg News earlier reported that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is in early talks for a controlling stake in Intel’s factories at the request of officials at US President Donald Trump’s administration, as the president looks to boost US manufacturing and maintain the country’s leadership in critical technologies. Trump officials raised the
‘SILVER LINING’: Although the news caused TSMC to fall on the local market, an analyst said that as tariffs are not set to go into effect until April, there is still time for negotiations US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he would likely impose tariffs on semiconductor, automobile and pharmaceutical imports of about 25 percent, with an announcement coming as soon as April 2 in a move that would represent a dramatic widening of the US leader’s trade war. “I probably will tell you that on April 2, but it’ll be in the neighborhood of 25 percent,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club when asked about his plan for auto tariffs. Asked about similar levies on pharmaceutical drugs and semiconductors, the president said that “it’ll be 25 percent and higher, and it’ll
CHIP BOOM: Revenue for the semiconductor industry is set to reach US$1 trillion by 2032, opening up opportunities for the chip pacakging and testing company, it said ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), the world’s largest provider of outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) services, yesterday launched a new advanced manufacturing facility in Penang, Malaysia, aiming to meet growing demand for emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The US$300 million facility is a critical step in expanding ASE’s global footprint, offering an alternative for customers from the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea and China to assemble and test chips outside of Taiwan amid efforts to diversify supply chains. The plant, the company’s fifth in Malaysia, is part of a strategic expansion plan that would more than triple
RSS