HONG KONG • Chinese search engine giant Baidu has secured approval from the Hong Kong stock exchange for a second listing in the city, according to people familiar with the matter.
Nasdaq-listed Baidu plans to launch its share sale as soon as next week, the sources said.
The offering could raise at least US$3.5 billion (S$4.7 billion), Bloomberg News has reported.
A representative for the company declined to comment. Shares in Baidu fell 6.2 per cent in the United States on Thursday amid a sell-off in technology stocks.
Baidu follows Chinese online car sales website Autohome in seeking a trading foothold in the Asian financial hub this year, after a wave of such share sales last year which saw some US$17 billion raised.
Other companies looking at selling shares in the city include Tencent Music Entertainment Group and video company Bilibili.
A wave of US-listed Chinese firms have been listing in Hong Kong since Alibaba Group Holding kicked off the trend in late 2019.
Deteriorating relations between the world's two biggest economies have risked threatening Chinese companies' access to US capital markets. The second listings also let the firms expand their investor bases closer to their home markets.
Once one of China's big three technology leaders alongside Alibaba and Tencent Holdings, Baidu is now playing catch-up as the country's Internet users increasingly shift from desktop to mobile.
It began years ago to sink billions of dollars into areas ranging from language learning to voice interaction to autonomous driving, betting on smart devices and vehicles of the future. But that endeavour ran into trouble in the initial stages, with the departures of pivotal executives.
Now, aided by steady investment in research and development and Beijing's focus on developing smart nationwide infrastructure, commercialisation cases are finally coming to the fore.
In January, the company announced it is teaming up with Zhejiang Geely Holding Group to produce smart electric vehicles.
The tie-up is intended to help Baidu deploy its Apollo self-driving technology in more vehicles, a source has said.
BLOOMBERG
