6.18 spells money for JD.com
For many Hongkongers, June is a highly political month with the commemoration of several key events such as the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989 and the start of the massive protests against the now-scrapped extradition bill last year.
In the financial community, this June is also significant as investors are eagerly awaiting the trading debut of JD.Com, China’s second-largest e-commerce company after Alibaba Group, in the city tomorrow.
The Tencent -backed group follows the lead of several high-profile US-listed Chinese companies that decided to hold second listings here. JD.com’s initial public offering is set to raise about US$3.9 billion, the largest fundraising exercise in the city so far this year.
It comes close on the heels of the local listing of Guangzhou-based mobile games publisher NetEase last Thursday, which raised US$2.7 billion. The biggest “homecoming” IPO, of course, is that of Alibaba, which raised US$13 billion in November last year.
June 18 is also significant for JD.com as it is the anniversary of the e-commerce giant’s founding in 1998. And if top rival Alibaba holds its biggest sale on Nov. 11, also known in China as Single’s Day, JD.com holds its own shopping extravaganza on June 18. The 6.18 festival is next to Alibaba’s 11.11 event in terms of gross sales.
So it is probably not entirely coincidental that JD.com founder Richard Liu Qiangdong picked the stock code 9618 for his company’s Hong Kong-listed shares.
Market observers will be closely watching the performance of JD.com tomorrow – not only the trading debut of its shares but also its sales during the annual shopping festival.
Despite the raging coronavirus pandemic, which is compounded by growing tensions between China and the United States, there is optimism that the e-commerce sector will benefit from the release of pent-up consumer demand as the country recovers from Covid-19. There are fears, however, of a second wave of infections in China after Beijing reported a cluster of new infections, linked to a food market, over the weekend.
Still, JD.com is doing everything to make its shopping festival a success. It started pre-sales as early as May 25 with enhanced pricing and return guarantees, fast delivery options and an integrated online/offline experience.
China is clearly relying on the power of its 1.4 billion consumers for its fast economic recovery, but JD.com warns in its prospectus that there has been a decrease in demand for big-ticket items, durable goods and discretionary products in view of Covid-19.
In Hong Kong, investors are upbeat about the company’s prospects. More than 370,000 investors have subscribed for its public listing. The offer was heavily subscribed with some HK$280 billion betting on a good post-IPO performance.
For the company’s chairman and chief executive officer, the listing is a sort of vindication. It will be recalled that Liu was arrested in Minneapolis two years ago after a Chinese student at the University of Minnesota accused him of sexual assault, casting doubts on the prospects of his company. He has since been released with prosecutors later admitting it was unlikely they could prove his guilt.
-- Contact us at [email protected]
-
Equip young people for the future Dr. Winnie Tang
In late February, the inaugural flight of an air taxi from Shenzhen Shekou Cruise Homeport to Zhuhai Jiuzhou Port took only 20 minutes with an estimated one-way ticket price of 200 to 300 yuan per
-
Are we raising a generation of leaders, or of followers? Brian YS Wong
The essence of education is defined not by the facts it imparts, but the potential knowledge it inspires students to individually pursue on their own. Put it this way – the ideal form of education
-
The urgent need for reforms to sex education in Hong Kong Sharon Chau
Nearly one in every four university students (23%) in Hong Kong has been sexually harassed, according to a 2019 report published by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC). A 2019 study found that
-
STEAM should be linked to real life Dr. Winnie Tang
In the 2017 Policy Address, STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education was proposed as one of the eight major directions to promote I&T development. Since then, funding has
-
Let trees speak for themselves Dr. Winnie Tang
I often say that smart cities start with smart planning, but smart planning presupposes adequate, systematic and up-to-date data. This is important not only for city administration, but also for tree
