Baidu's secondary listing in Hong Kong nears, as it passes hearing

Chinese search engine giant Baidu's secondary listing in Hong Kong nears, as it passes hearing of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, according to a filing.

This is also the first major Internet company to go public in Hong Kong after the Chinese New Year, as it passes hearing on the HKSE. The much-anticipated Chinese video site Bilibili, the Chinese equivalent of YouTube, will then soon participate in the HKSE hearing.

Baidu is expected to start accepting investor subscriptions next week and formally complete its secondary listing in Hong Kong in March, raising up to $5 billion (about HK$39 billion). Bank of America, CITIC Lyon Securities, and Goldman Sachs are the sponsor team for the listing, according to the above-mentioned report.

According to the process of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the roadshow time of the second listing back to Hong Kong is relatively shorter than the IPO’s, and the final pricing is based on US stocks, on which some adjustments will be made.

However, it was not yet known whether Baidu's pricing would be adjusted downward based on US stocks, the report said, adding that previous secondary listings, including China's e-commerce platform giant Alibaba's return to Hong Kong, were based on US stocks to do the corresponding discount.

On March 1, Baidu held a shareholders' meeting at its headquarters in Beijing and approved a 1-for-80 stock split of its common stock.

According to Baidu's previously announced filing, Baidu's board of directors approved a change in the ratio of Class A ordinary shares represented by its ADSs (American Depositary Shares) from one Class A ordinary share for every 10 ADSs to eight Class A ordinary shares for every one ADS, effective March 1, 2021.

Baidu, Inc. is a Chinese Internet company primarily engaged in search engine services, founded by Robin Li and Xu Yong on January 1, 2000 in Zhongguancun, Beijing, and listed on NASDAQ on August 5, 2005.

As of February 2021, Baidu is ranked fourth in the world and second in China in Alexa, with 12.3% of the world's search engine market share (second only to Google).

As of press time, Baidu's US pre-market stock was at $247.89, up 6.54 percent from yesterday's close of $232.68.