In a move to compete with New York the Hong Kong Exchange announced plans in 2017 to help the next wave of Chinese tech giants to go public in the city, offering tech founders the weighted voting rights that are common in the US. They, however, are now facing competition from China itself with China’s securities regulator announcing its own pilot scheme to encourage the same group of companies to list in Shanghai and Shenzhen. Beijing is also targeting companies including Baidu, Alibaba Group, and JD.com by allowing them to list at home via secondary listings – business that has also been high on Hong Kong’s agenda. At the heart of the three-way tussle lies an estimated $500 billion worth of Chinese tech firms expected to seek listings in the coming years – representing the biggest potential pool of IPO fees in the world outside the US tech sector. For China, the hope is to see more of its tech companies list at home, where domestic investors can benefit from any success.

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Reuters