Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com’s secondary listing and annual shopping event this week brought much-welcome news on multiple fronts for China’s tepidly recovering economy.To get more JD.com news, you can visit shine news official website.
JD.com’s “618” shopping extravaganza culminated on June 18, the same day the company made a successful secondary listing in Hong Kong (9618: HK).
The company, which turns 22 this month and listed on the Nasdaq (ticker: JD) in 2014, raked in 269.2 billion yuan ($38 billion) in sales, in the first big e-commerce festival since the coronavirus pandemic. This year’s sales eclipsed 2019’s total by more than 33%.
Though China’s slow economic recovery has been hampered by weak retail sales, consumers have continued shopping online. Yet, with estimates of an unemployment rate as high as 20%, observers were curious to see just how deep pocketbooks would be for 618.JD.com on Thursday became only the third large U.S.-listed Chinese firm with a secondary listing in Hong Kong. The first two were rival Alibaba Group Holding (BABA) and gaming leader NetEase (NTES).
JD shares immediately leapt nearly 6% above the IPO price Thursday, settling at close of trade to a 3.5% gain to HK$234 (US$30.19), from an offer price of HK$226. The sale raised $3.9 billion, and may increase, as underwriting banks have the option to expand the deal size by up to 15%.
The secondary listing comes amid an impressive bull run for JD’s Nasdaq shares, whose price had increased nearly 125% over the last 17 months.
On Friday, Goldman Sachs Group maintained a Buy rating on JD.com’s American Depositary Receipts, and revised its 12-month target price to $71 from $59, based in part on its “retail scale advantage.” JD.com’s shares in New York lost 3.5% to $58.64 on Friday, and the S&P 500 lost 0.6%. Goldman Sachs also initiated coverage on the Hong Kong shares with a Buy rating and a 12-month target price of HK$273.The successful listing is good news for both Hong Kong and mainland China, which is using the former British colony as an enticing market Beijing hopes will host an ongoing homecoming for its overseas-listed tech giants. China has also recently sought to further bring the financial hub under its control, promising to implement a so-called national security law that will largely erode Hong Kong’s autonomy. So far there is little sign Beijing’s tightened grasp has scared away market entrants or investors.
The firms are in part being lured away from New York because of U.S. threats to apply auditing standards on Chinese firms that may be unwilling to open their books, as well as requirements that such companies prove they have no substantial connections with the Chinese government.
“JD is hedging for the coming financial war,” Christopher Balding, associate professor at the Fulbright University Vietnam and an expert on the Chinese economy, told Barron’s on Friday. “If you are a Chinese company and definitely a Chinese company listed in the U.S. and aren’t considering these issues, you are well behind the curve.”
Meanwhile, the 618 festival is seen as a clear success for JD.com, if not proof that Chinese consumers are back. However, to get the consumers that it did, JD.com spent some $1.5 billion in discounts for the sales event, the company said.