Hong Kong’s biggest IPO so far this year will wrap up on Thursday when shares of e-commerce giantJD.com Inc. make their trading debut. The $3.9 billion listing will be the third in the city by a major Chinese internet company that is already listed in New York. JD.com rival Alibaba led the group with its groundbreaking $12.9 billion Hong Kong listing last November, followed by NetEase’s $2.7 billion Hong Kong trading debut last week.
Chinese internet giants are taking advantage of new rules in Hong Kong to make such secondary listings in a market that is closer to home and more accessible to their core users. Most notably, Hong Kong adopted a new rule called Chapter 19C in 2018, which provides a path to secondary listings for large emerging and innovative companies that are already listed on other major international exchanges.
