NAME: Trip.com’s $1.09 billion secondary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange
LAW FIRM: Jingtian & Gongcheng, Commerce & Finance Law Offices, Latham & Watkins, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
LAWYERS: Latham & Watkins – Terris Tang, Daying Zhang, Benjamin Su, Cathy Yeung, Alex Cohen, Paul Dudek, Dana Fleischman, Simon Hawkins and Samuel Weiner
JURISDICTION: China, Hong Kong
PRACTICE AREAS: Capital markets
INDUSTRY SECTORS: Technology and Telecommunications
China-based Trip.com’s $1.09 billion secondary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange is our deal of the month for April.
The deal comes as the latest in a long line of Mainland China headquartered companies seeking secondary listings on the HKEX including Bilibili, Autohome, New Oriental Education & Technology, Yum China Holdings, Zai Lab, ZTO Express and Huazhu Group.
Trip.com is the first online travel platform to have dual listings; having first been listed on NASDAQ in 2003. The move comes as part of a strategy to make it easier for the company’s main target market, Chinese and Asian travellers to invest in the company, as revealed by James Liang, executive chairman of Trip.com Group.
The group’s shares rose 4.5% from their issue price in their Hong Kong debut on 19 April, in anticipation of a full-fledged recovery in domestic travel within China during the Labour Week holidays in May.
Trip.com was advised by Commerce & Finance Law Offices in China, Skadden in Hong Kong, while Jingtian & Gongchen and Latham & Watkins advised joint sponsors and underwriters in China and Hong Kong, respectively.
