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Consider investing in wireless carrier stocks this holiday season: Expert

Hennessy Focus Funds portfolio manager Ira Rothberg discusses wireless carrier stocks people should invest in in a world that's developing 5G networks.

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  • A $12.5 Billion Deal Shows Saudi Oil Still Eclipses All Else

    (Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabia is celebrating one of the biggest foreign-investment windfalls in its history after netting more than $12 billion by selling off a stake in the oil pipelines that traverse the desert kingdom.But the country may also be facing an uncomfortable reality as a result. As carefully cultivated relationships with firms such as BlackRock Inc. and SoftBank Group Corp. have yet to draw in the desired investment, it’s turning to the jewels of its energy industry to attract new money.Last week’s sale of the stake to EIG Global Energy Partners LLC shows how reliant Saudi Arabia is on its traditional mainstay and the challenges Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman faces in diversifying the country away from oil and gas to achieve his Vision 2030 goal. The likes of BlackRock and SoftBank haven’t invested back into the country as much as the government might have hoped, while foreigners favor revenue-rich energy assets over tourism and entertainment.“Entertainment and tourism might have had a better year of foreign direct investment in 2020 if Covid had not happened,” Karen Young, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, said via e-mail. “But all the same, the core investors who see value in Saudi will be interested in the largest and most profitable sector, and that is still very much oil and energy.”Though EIG, the Washington-based private equity firm led by Chief Executive Blair Thomas, is a prominent investor in North America and Europe, it barely resonates in Saudi circles. It hasn’t made a single equity purchase in the Middle East until now, let alone the kingdom itself, and its management team has never showed at Saudi Arabia’s marquee “Davos in the Desert” conference, an event attended routinely by investment leaders from The Blackstone Group Inc.’s Stephen Schwarzman to Ray Dalio of BridgeWater Associates LP and the Carlyle Group’s David Rubenstein.Saudi Arabia attracted $5.5 billion in net FDI flows in 2020, equivalent to about 1% of its economic output, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, which means the EIG deal brings more than twice last year’s total. The government’s goal is 5.7% by 2030, hence the temptation to offer up prized energy assets such as parts of Saudi Aramco, the state-owned energy giant.“This is the latest milestone in an ongoing shift,” said Jim Krane, a fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy in Houston. “Mohammed bin Salman and his advisers keep finding novel ways to coax cash out of Aramco without disrupting its operational capability. Right now it’s cash that the kingdom needs and Aramco controls the spigot.”EIG beat out rivals including Apollo Global Management Inc. and Brookfield Asset Management Inc. to buy the stake. It’s now putting together a consortium of other investors to join the deal.While several global investors have forged closer ties with Saudi Arabia in recent years, most of them see it more as a source of capital than an investment destination. The kingdom’s flagship Public Investment Fund, or PIF, is the largest investor in Softbank’s $100 billion technology vehicle, with an allocation of $45 billion. The PIF has also pledged as much as $20 billion to help Blackstone Group LP build the world’s largest infrastructure fund.The reasons are manifold, ranging from the inconsistency of the Saudi legal system to an economic slump as the country adjusts to lower oil prices. The 2017 arrest and incarceration of scores of Saudi businessmen at Riyadh’s Ritz Carlton hotel and the murder of dissident writer Jamal Khashoggi the following year have hardly helped.FDI into Saudi Arabia peaked between 2008 and 2012, averaging more than $26 billion. During those years, it was mostly driven by large refinery and petrochemical projects developed with foreign partners including Total SE and Sumitomo Chemical Co. at a time when oil averaged over $90 a barrel. The subsequent slide in oil has seen average FDI into Saudi drop to about $6 billion a year.“Despite the measures to liberalize and open the economy for investment into new industries, FDI has not come in the way originally planned,” said Monica Malik, chief economist at Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank.FDI may be set to pick up further this year. The kingdom signed agreements with developers including Electricite de France SA and Marubeni Corp. to build solar power plants last week, and later this year it is likely to complete the sale of the world’s largest desalination plant. In 2020, FDI rose 20%, in part driven by deals with Alphabet Inc. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to develop cloud-computing hubs that Saudi Arabia said were worth a combined $1.5 billion.In selling assets of its main state-owned energy explorer, Saudi Arabia is following a model successfully implemented by neighboring Abu Dhabi. Instead of pursuing an initial public offering of its state-owned energy firm Adnoc, the emirate has raised more than $20 billion in recent years by bringing international investors into some of its key assets. EIG studied some of the Adnoc assets that were on offer but couldn’t reach an agreement. Hence, it didn’t want to lose out on the Aramco transaction, a person familiar with the matter said.Saudi Aramco is encouraged by the valuation and the interest generated for the pipelines deal, meaning the oil giant may pursue more disposals in the coming years, people familiar with the matter said. It has already entrusted boutique investment bank Moelis & Co with formulating a strategy for selling stakes in some subsidiaries, people familiar with the matter said in December.“It’s a great deal for Aramco, but also a new kind of investment strategy, in that it is “giving up” much more in terms of investor access to information, control over operations than an IPO does,” said Young of the American Enterprise Institute. “It is a real partnership, a long-term effort with outsiders, which is an entirely new level of trust outside of the firm and the government.”Founded in 1982, EIG has committed more than $34 billion to the energy sector, according to its website. Its portfolio includes holdings in Spanish solar developer Abengoa SA, Houston-based Cheniere Energy Inc., natural-gas producer Chesapeake Energy Corp. and storage and pipeline operator Kinder Morgan Inc.(Adds details on previous Saudi refinery investments in 11th paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

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    (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks retreated after climbing to an all-time high. Treasuries fell with the dollar. Oil rallied.PayPal Holdings Inc. and Nvidia Corp. paced losses among tech companies in the S&P 500, which had fluctuated for much of Wednesday’s session as traders sifted through earnings from some of the world’s biggest banks. Bitcoin slid in the wake of the debut by cryptocurrency company Coinbase Global Inc. on the Nasdaq.Read: Goldman, JPMorgan Traders Show the Reddit Crowd How It’s DoneWith equities lingering near a record, investors are looking to the earnings season for further catalysts. Expectations of a strong profit rebound have helped markets rally, setting the bar high as reporting gets underway. More broadly, investors are monitoring vaccine developments for any threats to the economic recovery. The Federal Reserve said in its Beige Book that activity has picked up pace amid an improvement in consumer spending.“You’re going to see this tug-of-war continue within markets as investors weigh the prospects of a strengthening economy with the risk of rising inflationary pressures,” said Adam Phillips, managing director of portfolio strategy at EP Wealth Advisors.A quarter that began with retail investors declaring the end of the status quo on Wall Street just ended with big banks tallying surprisingly massive hauls. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. -- two of the most gilded names in finance -- kicked off bank earnings season with revenue windfalls from trading and dealmaking, defying warnings from within the industry that good times couldn’t last.Goldman Sachs’s stock jumped, while JPMorgan’s slipped -- undermined by concern over weak demand for loans.Some key events to watch this week:U.S. data including initial jobless claims, industrial production and retail sales come Thursday.China economic growth, industrial production and retail sales figures are on Friday.These are some of the main moves in financial markets:StocksThe S&P 500 fell 0.4% at 4 p.m. New York time.The Stoxx Europe 600 Index gained 0.2%.The MSCI Asia Pacific Index advanced 0.7%.CurrenciesThe Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.2%.The euro climbed 0.3% to $1.1979.The Japanese yen appreciated 0.2% to 108.89 per dollar.BondsThe yield on two-year Treasuries rose less than one basis point to 0.16%.The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose two basis points to 1.63%.The yield on 30-year Treasuries climbed two basis points to 2.31%.CommoditiesWest Texas Intermediate crude gained 4.5% to $62.89 a barrel.Gold weakened 0.5% to $1,736.65 an ounce.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • Oil climbs over 4% on signs of increasing crude demand

    Oil prices surged more than 4% on Wednesday, after a report from the International Energy Agency, followed by U.S. inventory data boosted optimism about returning demand for crude. Brent crude futures rose $2.70, or 4.2%, to $66.37 a barrel by 11:05 a.m. EDT (1505 GMT). U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up $2.78, or 4.6%, to $62.96 a barrel.

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  • Analysis: Hot or cold war? Investors try to second guess Russia's military manoeuvres

    Fund managers are trimming exposure to Russia and Ukraine on fears that years of tensions could finally erupt into outright war, bringing economic ruin for Ukraine and more sanctions on Russia. "People are very sanguine," said Tim Ash, senior EM sovereign strategist at BlueBay Asset Management. Concerns about an escalation, including the immediate threat of sanctions, were partly assuaged after a phone call on Tuesday between U.S. President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in which Biden proposed a summit meeting between the pair and stressed U.S. commitment to Ukraine's territorial integrity.

  • BlackRock, Temasek to Raise Billions for Carbon-Cutting Startups

    (Bloomberg) -- Two of the world’s most powerful money managers are joining forces to build a business on climate-change investing and raise one of the largest venture-capital funds dedicated to carbon-cutting technologies.BlackRock Inc. and Singapore’s Temasek Holdings Pte. formed a new firm, Decarbonization Partners, to take stakes in startups that have the potential to reduce the world’s reliance on fossil fuels and meet the goal of zero-carbon emissions in three decades. They’re committing a total of $600 million to the effort, including $300 million of seed capital for a $1 billion first fund, and raising the rest from outside investors.Eventually, Decarbonization Partners aims to manage billions across multiple funds, BlackRock Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink said in an interview with Bloomberg Television, adding, “I look at this as one of the greatest investment opportunities over our lifetimes.”Although renewables are displacing coal in power generation and electric vehicles can be cost-competitive with gasoline-driven cars, there are no viable solutions for problems like large-scale storage of energy or clean alternatives to carbon-intensive cement and steel production. Hydrocarbons still dominate much of the economy because they're cheap and easy to transport.Today, the pools of money dedicated to clean tech are growing, but managers tend to focus either on the bleeding edge of innovation or cash-flowing assets such as solar arrays and wind farms. BlackRock and Temasek are zeroing in on late-stage VC, the point at which startups need greater amounts of capital to manufacture at scale and expand into new markets.“As you look at the transition to greener options, there is obviously a need to address the gulf between the cost of what’s available today and the cost curve of those solutions,” Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara, CEO of Temasek International, said. “That’s why private capital is required, to give these solutions a chance of making it to commercialization, to where the cost curves can be brought down to the levels of non-green options or even lower.” Breakthrough Energy Ventures, founded by Bill Gates in 2015, is currently the largest VC player in sustainable energy. It has raised more than $2 billion for early-stage investing, where the risk of failure is high, and anticipates holding its stakes for 20 years or longer. Another, Energy Impact Partners, has raised $1.7 billion, mainly from power utilities and industrial companies.More money is flowing into carbon-related investing. Dealmakers Chamath Palihapitiya and Ian Osborne plan to raise at least $1 billion for a publicly traded vehicle. Venture funding for climate tech startups totaled $16 billion in 2019, up from about $400 million in 2013, according to a PwC report published last year.The first climate-investing boom between 2006 and 2011 ended poorly, with venture funds losing more than half the $25 billion invested. One notable bankruptcy was Solyndra, a solar-panel startup with financing backed by U.S. taxpayers.Decarbonization Partners will operate like a traditional VC fund, asking investors to lock up money for about a decade and targeting annualized returns of about 20%. Fink offered $5 billion as a longer-term goal for assets under management.“We’re going to be testing this, we’re going to be building it, we’re going to have proof of concept and then we’ll see,” he said. “This is not tens of billions of dollars. It may lead to those types of large-scale investments, but it doesn’t need to be that large-scale.”Temasek, a state-owned investor that oversees about $230 billion, has pledged to reduce net-carbon emissions by its portfolio companies to half their 2010 level by 2030 and to zero by 2050. Because it controls Singapore Airlines, one of Temasek’s priorities is finding a sustainable and cost-effective alternative to jet fuel. Pillay and Fink described their shared interest in making green hydrogen a practical replacement for fossil fuels. Decarbonization Partners also is targeting technologies in battery storage, autonomous driving and power grid reliability, as well as materials and process innovation for industries and infrastructure.As the world’s largest asset manager, New York-based BlackRock has the reach and client relationships to marshal capital into new investment vehicles. Just last week, it raised $4.8 billion to buy renewable-power facilities and separately raised $1.5 billion from Temasek, the California State Teachers’ Retirement System and others for two exchange-traded funds. The ETFs use proprietary research and analytics to find stocks that’ll benefit in the low-carbon transition.Fink has taken a vocal stance in the fight to reduce carbon emissions, declaring climate change an investment risk and pushing for sustainability. In his annual letter to CEOs in January, he said companies must disclose plans for making their business models compatible with a net-zero economy.Read more: Fink Demands Net-Zero Disclosure as Climate Push StrengthensTemasek and BlackRock already are partners in a Chinese asset-management business and Temasek is one of BlackRock’s top shareholders. Pillay, who takes over as Temasek CEO in October, said he’ll judge the new venture’s success on two measures: the speed at which its investments help achieve carbon abatement in the economy, and profitability.“We’re not going to look at sacrificing returns,” he said. “We may have to wait longer, given the early-stage element of this partnership, but we do believe the returns will come.”For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • Jack Ma’s Fortune Jumps $2 Billion After Record Alibaba Fine

    (Bloomberg) -- China just slapped a record antitrust fine on Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. The company thanked the government and investors breathed a sigh of relief.Alibaba’s American depositary receipts climbed 9.3% on Monday in New York, their biggest jump in almost four years. For Jack Ma, the founder of the e-commerce giant, it meant his fortune increased by $2.3 billion to $52.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.The $2.8 billion fine is less severe than some investors feared and is based on only 4% of the company’s 2019 domestic sales, far less than the maximum 10% allowed under Chinese law. While the internet giant will have to adjust the way it does business, its vice chairman said regulators won’t impose a radical overhaul of its e-commerce strategy and its chief executive officer declared Alibaba ready to move on.“Alibaba would not have achieved our growth without sound government regulation and service, and the critical oversight, tolerance and support from all of our constituencies have been crucial to our development,” the company said in an open letter. “For this, we are full of gratitude and respect.”Ma, who up until last year was China’s richest person, has lost billions since his nation’s regulators began an anti-monopolistic campaign, halting the initial public offering of his Ant Group Co. payments company just two days before it was scheduled to go public. He is now China’s third-richest person after Zhong Shanshan of bottled-water company Nongfu Spring Co. and Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s Pony Ma.Separately, China’s central bank ordered Ant to become a financial-holding company that will be regulated more like a bank. The move, announced on Monday, will have far-reaching implications for the firm’s growth and its ability to press ahead with an initial public offering. Alibaba shares opened 3.4% higher in Hong Kong on Tuesday.(Updates to include Ant overhaul and stock move in last paragraph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • Nomura Tightens Hedge Fund Financing After Archegos Collapse

    (Bloomberg) -- Nomura Holdings Inc. is beginning to tighten financing for some hedge fund clients following the Archegos Capital Management LP fiasco that may cost Japan’s biggest brokerage an estimated $2 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.The restrictions are part of a wider review of Nomura’s prime brokerage that may lead to a scaling back of the business, one of the people said, declining to be identified as the details are private and no decision has been reached. Nomura is tightening leverage for some clients previously granted exceptions to margin financing limits, another person said.A representative for the Tokyo-based firm declined to comment.Nomura is taking steps to reduce risk at its prime brokerage unit in the wake of the Archegos collapse that may result in combined losses of $10 billion for global banks, according to estimates from JPMorgan Chase & Co.The Japanese brokerage joins a swathe of high-profile lenders caught up in the failure including Credit Suisse Group AG, which disclosed a first-quarter charge of 4.4 billion Swiss francs ($4.76 billion) for its ties to the New York-based firm.Credit Suisse has also been tightening financing terms for hedge funds and family offices, in a potential revamp of new industry practices after the blowup, people with direct knowledge of the matter said last week. The Swiss bank is also planning a sweeping overhaul of the hedge fund business at the center of the incident.‘Too Early’Nomura is examining the cause of the possible losses and it’s too early to say how it might impact earnings, an executive at the firm said in March, asking not to be identified. They declined to say how much the company has unwound positions linked to Archegos, which made highly leveraged bets on stocks that imploded when the investments suddenly lost value last month.Shares in Nomura lost 2.6% as of 11:25 a.m. in Tokyo on Wednesday.Under Kentaro Okuda, who became chief executive officer last April, Nomura’s net income reached a 19-year high for the nine months ended in December, driven by a boom in trading and investment banking at home and overseas. The brokerage said in late March that it had an estimated $2 billion claim against a U.S. client, which Bloomberg identified as Archegos. The announcement sent the stock plunging 16% on March 29.Although Nomura is yet to confirm exactly how much it will lose from Archegos, SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. analysts led by Masao Muraki have said that it may post a 95 billion yen loss in the fourth quarter as a result of the trades.The brokerage isn’t the only Japanese financial institution taking a hit from Archegos. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc.’s securities unit is booking a $270 million loss from the debacle, while Mizuho Financial Group Inc. faces about 10 billion yen in potential losses, Bloomberg has reported.Prime-brokerage divisions cater specifically to hedge funds, lending them cash and securities and conducting their trades. The relationships can be very lucrative for investment banks as well as a significant source of revenue.(Updates with details of restrictions in second paragraph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

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  • JPMorgan Posts Investment-Banking Surge While Loans Decline

    (Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s dealmakers just helped usher in the firm’s best quarter on record, but shares fell as the bank warned that loan demand remains tepid.Investment-banking fees soared 57%, beating analysts’ estimates and boosting net income to $14.3 billion, the most JPMorgan has ever earned in a single quarter, according to a statement Wednesday. A larger-than-expected reserve release added to the windfall as the bank determined it didn’t need as much socked away for future loan losses.Government stimulus programs and potentially massive infrastructure spending mean “the economy has the potential to have extremely robust, multiyear growth,” Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said in the statement.Dimon said loan demand is still “challenged” but, on a subsequent conference call with journalists, he said he “made a mistake” in using that word. “What’s happened is the consumer has so much money they’re paying down their credit-card loans, which is good,” he said. “This is not bad news about loan demand, this is actually good news.”The CEO said last week in his annual letter to shareholders that he’s optimistic the pandemic will end with a U.S. economic rebound that could last at least two years. He pointed to an “extraordinary” amount of spending power from both consumers and corporations as the country opens back up.Still, investors are keen for signs that banks will soon expand their loan portfolios. Across the industry, credit-card balances have been dwindling and deposits soaring as a result of trillions of dollars of stimulus. Businesses have also been reluctant to borrow until the pace of the economic recovery becomes clearer.JPMorgan expects a pickup in consumer and small-business loan demand in the second half, Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Piepszak said on a conference call with analysts. Commercial-loan demand is muted and “probably will be for some time,” she said. “But, again, that’s incredibly healthy ultimately for the recovery.”At JPMorgan, loans fell 4% from a year earlier, driven by a 14% drop in card loans. Shares of the company slipped 0.7% to $153.04 at 10:06 a.m. in New York.Investment BankingInvestment-banking fees jumped to $2.99 billion, topping the $2.59 billion analysts were expecting. The bank posted a $5.2 billion reserve release, a metric Dimon said he doesn’t consider “core or recurring profits.” Piepszak said the bank expects more reserve releases because the forecast is for a robust economic recovery in the second half.Equity underwriting more than tripled to $1.06 billion, beating expectations as JPMorgan rode the wave in activity driven in part by a slew of special purpose acquisition companies that went public in the first quarter. The New York-based bank ranked 10th by volume in SPAC underwriting for the period, and fifth for global equity underwriting overall. Analysts had predicted the trend would boost revenue 176% in the first quarter for the five biggest U.S. banks.The bank’s traders generated $9.05 billion of revenue in the first quarter, up 25% from a year earlier and exceeding analysts’ expectations. That included a 47% increase in equities and a 15% jump in fixed income. Trading revenue remained elevated after a banner year as the coronavirus pandemic roiled markets and sent volatility soaring.The firm increased its full-year 2021 adjusted expense outlook to $70 billion, from $69 billion expected in February. Non-interest expenses were $18.7 billion in the first quarter, up 12% from a year earlier.Dimon and Piepszak again discussed JPMorgan’s appetite for acquisitions, a point that was punctuated last week when Dimon wrote in his letter that “acquisitions are in our future.” The CEO echoed previous comments that he prefers to use JPMorgan’s extra cash to invest in the business, rather than on share repurchases.“We’re buying back stock because our cup runneth over,” Dimon said. “We’re earning a tremendous sum of money and we really have no option right now. But I think the door’s open to anything that makes sense.”Also in JPMorgan’s first-quarter earnings:Net interest income was $12.9 billion, down 11% from a year earlier. The firm’s outlook for 2021 NII is about $55 billion.Total revenue was $32.3 billion in the first quarter, up 14% from a year earlier.The overhead ratio, a measure of profitability, was 58% in the quarter, up from 55% in the fourth quarter.(Updates with CEO, CFO comments starting in fourth paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • Coinbase rival Binance coin and Dogecoin are surging ahead of pivotal IPO… Here’s why

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  • Pigs Are Seen as Next Big Thing in Xinjiang as Cotton Dims

    (Bloomberg) -- China should build more pig farms in Xinjiang as its cotton industry is under threat from declining soil fertility, according to a government researcher, commenting after some international companies avoided fiber produced in the region over allegations of forced labor.Hog farming could become a pillar industry in the region and supply 10% of the nation’s output, up from 1% now, wrote Mei Xinyu, a think-tank researcher at the commerce ministry. Xinjiang already grows more than 80% of the country’s cotton, and some of those pig farms would replace fields sown to the fiber that have been degraded.The suggestion comes after the U.S. banned imports of textile products containing cotton from Xinjiang in protest over alleged ill-treatment of its ethnic Uighur Muslim minority, and several western countries slapped sanctions on China over the same issue.Cotton is the most profitable crop in the region, and rotation to other crops is not in the interests of growers and hard to achieve on a large scale, Mei said on the WeChat account of Beijing News, a government-run newspaper. The only feasible option is to build more hog farms, he said, and they can use local grain to feed the pigs or import supplies from neighboring countries.Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a military-affiliated entity, and other groups have already started building several large-scale pig farms, which will increase output significantly in the next two years. In the meantime, animal waste from the farms could be used to boost soil fertility, which has been exhausted by extensive use of chemical fertilizer, said Mei.“The most desirable way to solve this problem is to raise pigs and grow cotton simultaneously, and return a large amount of manure from pig farms to the fields after treatment to enhance soil fertility and increase profits,” Mei said.China should expand hog farms in areas like Xinjiang and Heilongjiang, which are less population-intensive than the inland provinces like Sichuan, Hunan and Henan which dominate the country’s pork production, Mei said. Outbreaks of African swine fever that started in 2018 slashed hog herds by as much as half and sent meat imports spiraling to a record.(Updates with details from the report throughout)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • Trip.com Plans Hong Kong Listing Price at HK$268 Each

    (Bloomberg) -- Online travel platform Trip.com Group Ltd. has raised about HK$8.5 billion ($1.1 billion) in its Hong Kong second listing after pricing the shares at HK$268 each.The company sold 31.6 million shares in the Hong Kong offering, according to a statement on Tuesday. The price represents a discount of about 2% to Trip.com’s closing price of $35.20 on Monday on the Nasdaq.One of Trip.com’s American depositary shares is equivalent to one ordinary share. The shares are due to start trading in Hong Kong on April 19.Trip.com’s U.S. shares have risen about 4% this year, giving the firm a market capitalization of $21 billion. It is part of a wave of U.S.-listed Chinese companies seeking a trading foothold in Hong Kong which has seen some of the country’s biggest tech giants such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and JD.com Inc. raise over $36 billion since late 2019, data compiled by Bloomberg show.The second listings act as a way to hedge against the risk of being kicked off U.S. exchanges as a result of rising Sino-U.S. tensions, as well as to bring in more Asia-based investors. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has said it will start implementing a law passed last year requiring overseas companies to let American regulators inspect their audits or face delisting.Recent second listings from the likes of Baidu Inc. and Bilibili Inc. fared less well than ones last year as they got caught up in a broader selloff of technology shares as investors rotated into sectors expected to benefit from a recovery of global growth. But tech names have since staged a comeback, with the Nasdaq Composite Index rising from lows hit at the beginning of March.JPMorgan Chase & Co., China International Capital Corp. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are joint sponsors for Trip.com’s listing.(Updates with company confirmation throughout the story.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

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