Baidu Wins Hong Kong Exchange Approval for Flotation

What’s new: Chinese online search engine Baidu Inc.’s secondary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange passed a hearing on the plan, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday.

Baidu expects to accept subscriptions from investors starting next week and complete the offering of as much as $5 billion within the month, the filing shows. The company chose Bank of America, CLSA and Goldman Sachs as joint sponsors.

Baidu’s Nasdaq-traded American depository shares jumped 13.6% Tuesday to $264.28.

The background: Baidu will join a string of major U.S.-listed Chinese companies making secondary offerings in Hong Kong after the U.S. threatened to kick Chinese companies that fail to meet certain auditing standards off American exchanges.

Returning to Hong Kong has emerged as a preferred option for U.S.-traded Chinese companies seeking to expand their funding sources.

In the last two years, U.S-traded Chinese tech giants including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (9988.HK), JD.com Inc. (9618.HK) and NetEase Inc. (9999.HK) have all sold shares in Hong Kong.

Quick Takes are condensed versions of China-related stories for fast news you can use.

Contact reporter Denise Jia (huijuanjia@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bobsimison@caixin.com).

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