HONG KONG, June 5 — China’s second largest e-commerce company JD.com today filed to list its shares in Hong Kong in a major win for the financial hub despite swirling fears over Beijing’s plan to impose a national security law on the city.
The listing comes a day after fellow Chinese tech giant NetEase announced plans to raise US$2.7 billion (RM11.5 billion) in an IPO in the semi-autonomous city.
Bloomberg News previously reported that JD.com hopes to raise US$2 billion from its Hong Kong share sale.
JD.com raised US$1.78 billion when it listed on the Nasdaq in New York in 2014 and now has a market capitalisation of US$64 billion.
The dual listing would help the company better compete with e-commerce rivals including Amazon and Chinese titan Alibaba, which raised a whopping US$12.9 billion in secondary Hong Kong IPO last year.
The move comes as Chinese companies look for footholds closer to home given the spiralling trade tensions between Washington and Beijing.
But Hong Kong is also finding itself buffeted by political unrest.
The usually stable business hub was upended last year by seven straight months of huge and often violent pro-democracy protests.
Last month Beijing announced plans to impose a sweeping national security law on the city in response to the protests, a move that has sparked alarm among many western nations.
Beijing says an anti-subversion law is needed to tackle “terrorism” and “separatism” and will return business-friendly stability to the finance hub.
Opponents fear it will bring mainland style political oppression to a business hub supposedly guaranteed freedoms and autonomy for 50 years after its 1997 handover to China by Britain. — AFP
