BABA Alibaba Group Holding Limited

   By Joanne Chiu 
 

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd.(0388.HK) approved new rules for initial public offerings, as it competes with other global bourse operators for some of the world's highly sought companies.

The city's bourse operator said Tuesday that its new rules to broaden Hong Kong's listing regime would take effect on April 30, when it starts to take applications from companies in emerging and innovative sectors seeking to list in Hong Kong.

The new rules, which permit IPOs that restrict shareholders' voting rights, secondary listings by Chinese and international companies already listed elsewhere and primary listings by unprofitable biotech firms, mark the biggest overhaul of the bourse operator's listing regime in more than two decades. The proposed new rules were unveiled in December.

It comes after Chief executive Charles Li said last Friday that he is confident the city would land some of the biggest listings in the future, including Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (SOI.YY), known as Aramco, tech giant Xiaomi Corp. (XIMI.YY) and, in time, a dual listing for e-commerce titan Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (BABA).

Smartphone maker Xiaomi is targeting an IPO in mainland China and Hong Kong as soon as this summer that could value it at about $100 billion, people familiar with the offering have said.

Write to Joanne Chiu at joanne.chiu@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 24, 2018 06:41 ET (10:41 GMT)

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