Chinese Firms Show Resilient Interest in U.S. IPOs Despite Regulatory Hurdles

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Dec 04, 2023, 09:00 ET

FinancialBuzz.com News Commentary

NEW YORK, Dec. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Despite regulatory challenges and geopolitical tensions, there is a sustained interest among Chinese companies in listing on U.S. stock exchanges. This trend is indicative of the global financial clout and reputation of U.S. capital markets, which offer Chinese firms access to a wider investor base and potentially higher valuations than domestic or other international exchanges. The U.S. stock market, being one of the largest and most liquid in the world, provides significant advantages for Chinese companies seeking to expand their international presence and secure capital for growth and innovation. As of October, seventeen Chinese companies raising a total of $405 million started trading on U.S. exchanges this year, according to data from IPO research firm Renaissance Capital. Last year's 14 IPOs raised a total of $468 million. VCI Global Limited (NASDAQ: VCIG), Tencent Holding Ltd. (OTC: TCEHY), Lufax Holding Ltd (NYSE: LU), Qifu Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: QFIN)

This ongoing interest, despite regulatory and geopolitical headwinds, underscores the strategic importance and perceived benefits of U.S. listings for Chinese companies. As noted by Kobe Ge, head of China at the New York Stock Exchange, despite the negative impact last year from Covid-19 restrictions and U.S. regulatory uncertainty, many of those issues are now resolved and "we still see very strong interest from Chinese businesses for listing in the U.S.," he told CNBC's East Tech West conference in the Nansha district of Guangzhou, China earlier this year.

VCI Global Limited (NASDAQ: VCIG) just announced breaking news that it has unveiled, "a strategic collaboration with Evolve Capital Advisory Private Limited ("Evolve Capital"). This collaboration seeks to cultivate a comprehensive avenue, providing companies with enhanced opportunities to facilitate capital markets access through public listings on NASDAQ or SGX.

Evolve Capital, a boutique investment bank focusing on growth enterprises across Southeast Asia, brings extensive expertise in providing comprehensive strategic advice, including M&A and capital markets capabilities. As a holder of the Capital Market Services Licence authorised by the Monetary Authority of Singapore ("MAS"), Evolve Capital is also an Accredited Mainboard Issue Manager and Catalist Full Sponsor by the Singapore Exchange Limited ("SGX"). Additionally, Evolve Capital has achieved the distinction of being the first Asia-based firm granted the OTCQX and OTCQB Sponsor license by OTC Markets Group Inc., offering alternative listing options for in the United States.

While acknowledging the unique strengths of various international exchanges, this collaboration seeks to provide companies with an optimal pathway to listing, including NASDAQ as a strategic option. The U.S. capital markets, renowned for their size, liquidity, and stability, offer an additional avenue for global issuers to access capital. The synergistic strengths of VCI Global and Evolve Capital aim to establish a versatile platform that caters to the evolving needs of businesses in today's dynamic market environment. This endeavour is further fortified by VCI Global's extensive consultancy experience, having played a pivotal role for numerous companies, especially in tandem with their listing endeavours on NASDAQ.

"This collaboration proves timely, aligning with the escalating trend of companies, particularly those from this region, actively pursuing listings, notably on NASDAQ, a platform rapidly ascending in popularity. One of the primary incentives for selecting NASDAQ as the listing venue lies in its comparatively lower minimum prerequisites for qualification. Furthermore, the positive reception of its entirely electronic trading infrastructure is noteworthy among a diverse spectrum of traders," said Dato' Victor Hoo, Group Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of VCI Global.

Jerry Chua, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner at Evolve Capital, expressed enthusiasm, stating, "The collaboration with VCI Global signifies a pivotal convergence of industry acumen and strategic foresight. We eagerly anticipate harmonising the nuanced strengths of the various international exchanges, including NASDAQ and SGX, presenting companies with a bespoke and sophisticated approach to their listing strategies. This partnership underscores our unwavering dedication to ushering in a paradigm shift in the landscape of international markets, where businesses can explore a multifaceted array of listing options tailored to their unique objectives. Our enthusiasm lies in guiding companies through the intricate dynamics of global markets, establishing a collaborative paradigm that redefines possibilities and elevates our clients' strategic positioning in the ever-evolving global marketplace."

Tencent Holding Ltd. (OTC: TCEHY) is an investment holding company, offers value-added services (VAS), online advertising, fintech, and business services in the People's Republic of China and internationally. It operates through VAS, Online Advertising, FinTech and Business Services, and Others segments. Ma Huateng, Chairman and CEO of Tencent, said, "During the third quarter of 2023, we achieved solid and high quality revenue growth, notable margin expansion, and structural operating leverage. Relatively new services such as Video Accounts and Mini Games contributed high margin revenue streams while we re-focused away from less-scalable activities. We are increasing investment in our AI models, providing new features to our products and enhancing our targeting capabilities for both content and advertising. We aspire to position our leading AI capability not only as a growth multiplier for ourselves, but also as a value provider to our enterprise customers, and the society at large."

Lufax Holding Ltd (NYSE: LU) operates a technology-empowered personal financial services platform in China. The company offers loan products, including unsecured loans and secured loans, as well as consumer finance loans. It also provides wealth management platforms, such as Lufax (Lu.com), Lu International (Singapore), and Lu International (Hong Kong) to the middle class and affluent investors to invest in products and portfolios; retail credit facilitation services platform that offers small business owners with lending solutions; and technology empowerment solutions for financial institutions. YongSuk Cho, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lufax, commented, "As part of our diversification efforts, we plan to acquire 100% of the equity interest of Ping An OneConnect Bank, pending the approval of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and OneConnect's shareholders. PAOB is a fully licensed bank with a service scope similar to traditional banks. As of June 30, 2023, a significant portion of PAOB's loan balance is backed by the Hong Kong government's SME Financing Guarantee Scheme and its capital adequacy ratio was 100%, which was substantially higher than the relevant regulatory requirement. We believe the business and target customers of PAOB sync well with our existing operations."

Qifu Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: QFIN) through its subsidiaries, operates credit-tech platform under the 360 Jietiao brand in the People's Republic of China. "We are pleased to report another quarter of solid financial results in a rather challenging macro environment. Total revenue was RMB4.28 billion and non-GAAP net income was RMB1.18 billion for the third quarter," Alex Xu, Chief Financial Officer, commented in the Company's most recent financial report. "During the quarter, despite the macro uncertainty, we continued to improve our operational efficiency and drive for better economic returns. At the end of the third quarter, our total cash and cash equivalent was approximately RMB8.2 billion, and we generated approximately RMB1.2 billion cash from operations. Our strong financial positions not only enable us to drive quality growth, but also allow us to deliver attractive shareholder returns through dividend payout and share repurchase."

Bilibili Inc. (NASDAQ: BILI) provides online entertainment services for the young generations in the People's Republic of China. Its platform offers a range of content, including video services, mobile games, and value-added service, as well as ACG-related comic and audio content. In it's recent financial report Rui Chen, chairman and chief executive officer of Bilibili, said "We delivered remarkable user growth and engagement in the third quarter while effectively improving our commercialization efficiency. Our DAUs surpassed an exciting milestone of 100 million, marking a 14% year-over-year increase to 103 million. Additionally, users' average daily time spent on our platform reached a historical high of 100 minutes, boosting total user time spent2 by 19% year-over-year. Meanwhile, we are continuing to strengthen our commercialization efficiency by integrating advertising solutions and live broadcasting across our content ecosystem. This strategy has driven our revenues from advertising and value-added services up by 21% and 17% year-over-year, respectively. We are proud of the quality community growth we have achieved thus far, and we are confident that our self-driven content ecosystem will lead to even more user growth and commercial opportunities ahead."

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