FILE PHOTO: A logo of Alibaba Group is seen at an exhibition during the World Intelligence Congress in Tianjin, China May 16, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee
(Reuters) – Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is considering raising $20 billion through a second listing in Hong Kong, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing unnamed people with knowledge of the matter.
The Chinese e-commerce company is working with financial advisers on the planned offering and is aiming to file a listing application in Hong Kong confidentially as early as the second half of 2019, according to the Bloomberg report. (bloom.bg/2YRpEdi)
A spokesman from Alibaba declined to comment.
Alibaba held its record $25 billion public float in New York in 2014 after Hong Kong, its favored venue, refused to accept its governance structure, where a self-selecting group of senior managers control the majority of board appointments.
Early last year, when Hong Kong was preparing to allow dual-class share listings, Alibaba founder Jack Ma had said that the company would “seriously consider” a listing on its exchange.
A second listing would be intended to diversify Alibaba’s funding channels and boost liquidity, according to the Bloomberg report.
The move comes as Chinese companies face an increasingly hostile U.S. government, which has put several Chinese tech companies on a blacklist.
Reporting by Saumya Sibi Joseph and Aditi Sebastian in Bengaluru; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Rosalba O’Brien