US plan to delist Chinese stocks may make Hong Kong great again as IPO hub, bankers say

Hong Kong is likely to benefit from the delisting of mainland Chinese firms from American exchanges should the US follow up on its threat to eject them, according to bankers and analysts.

“These companies may consider a secondary listing or a dual-primary listing in Hong Kong to raise funds, which will boost the initial public offering (IPO) market,” said Tom Chan Pak-lam, honorary ­president of the Institute of Securities Dealers, an industry body for stockbrokers.

A total of 286 Chinese companies were listed on the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and NYSE American with a combined market capitalization of US$1.1 trillion at the end of March, according to data from these exchanges.

Since January 2024, 48 mainland firms have listed on the three US bourses, raising a combined US$2.1 billion, including self-driving car firm Pony.ai and Geely’s EV unit Zeekr.

Their fate remains uncertain after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declined to rule out the possibility that Washington might delist Chinese stocks from US exchanges.

Source: SCMP