Chinese tech behemoth Alibaba has postponed its plan to head for a mainland listing via Chinese Depository Receipt (CDR), according to Tencent Tech citing people with knowledge of the matter. The source wasn’t specific about the reasons behind this decision.
Previous reports show that Alibaba’s local listing plan was originally scheduled for this month. CITIC Securities and China International Capital Corporation would serve as IPO sponsors.
In an official response from the company, Alibaba said “Alibaba is open to issuing shares on the mainland if compliant with Chinese regulations and various circumstances. We have made this clear since the first day of our US listing and have never changed it ever since. We give no comments on the market rumors.”
Due to tight regulation and high volatility, Chinee stock market is losing local tech giants to other listing destinations such as Hong Kong and the US. China wants to open its door to Chinese tech giants with an IPO plan as well as those offshore-listed tech firms like Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent, JD.com, etc.
Despite the heat, the CDR process is not going very smooth. On June 19, Xiaomi, which is expected to be the first company for this program, stated via its official account on Weibo that after serious consideration it will issue its CDR only after completing its initial public offering in Hong Kong.