Chinese search engine company Baidu raised more than $3.1 billion through its secondary listing in Hong Kong.
According to its stock exchange filing, the company sold about 95 million Class A ordinary shares at an initial price of HK$252 ($32.45) per share.
The offer price in Hong Kong represented a 2.7% discount to the price of the company's listed shares in New York Wednesday. Based on the amount, the company raised new capital of around HK$23.94 billion ($3.08 billion).
The company's stock in New York rose by 0.47% on the news of its secondary listing. Baidu's New York-listed stock ended Wednesday at $277.13 per share.
Baidu's stock has climbed more than 23.37% year-to-date. Since it began processing its secondary listing in Hong Kong, the company's New York-listed stock has gained more than 4.6%.
Eight of Baidu's Hong Kong shares are equivalent to one of its American Depositary Shares (ADS). The company's stock in Hong Kong is expected to begin trading on March 23.
Baidu is currently the fifteenth U.S.-listed Chinese company to launch a secondary listing at home. The first company to conduct a so-called "homecoming listing" was Alibaba Group, which listed its shares in Hong Kong in November 2019.
Notable Chinese companies that had also launched secondary listings include JD.com and NetEase. Earlier in the year, Chinese video streaming company Bilibili announced its plan to file for a Hong Kong secondary listing.
Unlike other tech stocks that were listed in recent weeks, Baidu's listing was well received. The retail tranche, worth 5% of the total share sale, was oversubscribed more than 100 times, indicating strong retail investor interest in the stock.
Under Hong Kong's so-called "clawback" rules, around 12% of the deal is expected to be sold to retail investors. Depending on the demand from smaller investors, portions allocated may be adjusted under the new system.
According to Baidu, demand for margin loans to acquire its shares remained strong. A company spokesperson said that online broker Futu had recorded more than 90,000 subscriptions worth more than HK$14.7 billion from investors interested in taking our margin loans.
