The Beike report said the average housing vacancy rate in 28 major cities in China is higher than the average rate in the US, Canada, France, Australia and Britain, with a 7% vacancy rate in tier-one cities including Beijing, and 12% in tier-two cities. This stirred a heated debate and fears it would aggravate poor sentiment in the debt-ridden sector. File photo: Jade Gao, AFP.
New York-listed Chinese real estate firm KE Holdings plans to list its shares in Hong Kong in a so-called ‘homecoming’ listing.
Unlike a typical initial public offering (IPO) or secondary listing, KE Holdings, which runs online property platform Beike that matches buyers and sellers of real estate, will raise no capital and issue no new shares in what is termed a listing by introduction.
The company will start trading its stock on the Hong Kong exchange on May 11, it said in regulatory filings.
The increased number of return-home deals has been triggered by US regulators’ heightened scrutiny and stricter audit requirements for US-listed Chinese companies amid political tensions between the countries.
Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio listed by introduction in Hong Kong in March.
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KE Holdings did not describe the reasons for pursuing the Hong Kong listing. It comes after it was added on April 22 by US authorities to a list of companies that could be delisted from American exchanges if they did not allow US auditors to access their accounts.
KE Holdings then said it was exploring possible solutions to protect the interest of its stakeholders and would continue to comply with laws in the United States and China.
The US list was expanded on Wednesday to include 80 more companies including Chinese online retail giant JD.com that could be delisted if they fail to comply with American auditing standards for three years in a row.
KE Holdings was reported to be considering a Hong Kong share sale in September last year, although the company said at the time it had no imminent plans for such a listing.
Goldman Sachs and China International Capital Corp are sponsoring the KE Holdings listing, filings showed on Thursday.
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