Alibaba reportedly considering second listing in Hong Kong exchange

E-commerce giant Alibaba is reportedly considering a secondary listing in Hong Kong in response to the growing trade war between the US and China.

Alibaba could be the leader in getting Chinese companies to seek listings at home, reported CNBC on Thursday.

“I think there will be more … companies looking to move back to Hong Kong because we really don’t know what the US will be doing,” Kevin Leung, executive director of investment strategy at Haitong International Securities told CNBC.

A group of US lawmakers last month introduced a bill that would force US-listed Chinese firms to comply with regulatory oversight. After the blacklisting of telecoms group Huawei, more restrictions could be placed on the Chinese firms in order to gain leverage against Beijing.

According to CNBC, listing in Hong Kong or China gives investors of these companies “easier access” because they won’t have to deal with time differences and transferring capital to the US. The gap between the quality of domestic investors and international ones that concerned Chinese firms has narrowed.

Alibaba announced recently that it would be allowing small American companies to sell through its platform Alibaba.com, its b2b division, to face rivals like Amazon.

So far, American companies could only buy through the platform, where they represent one third of all buyers. Sellers, on the other hand are 95% Chinese.

Alibaba said that American distributors will have to pay a rate of $2,000 to open their online stores without factoring in marketing and publicity expenses.