Chinese streaming service Bilibili will start a secondary listing in Hong Kong on March 29, expected to raise $2.8B, after listing on the Nasdaq in March 2018
Joanne Chiu / Wall Street Journal :
Context & Ripple Effects
This listing has been telegraphed for months: Bilibili was first reported gearing up for a Hong Kong float in October 2020 with a target of up to $1.5B, then filed for the secondary listing in January with expectations above $2B, and received exchange approval this month at an indicated ~$3B raise. The confirmation of a March 29 start and a $2.8B expected haul lands between those marks.
The scale of the move is the story behind the story: its March 2018 Nasdaq IPO raised only ~$483M at a valuation just over $3B, while its US shares have since risen roughly tenfold to a ~$39B market value — so the company is returning to public markets as a different order of asset, tapping Hong Kong investors who until now could only reach it through Nasdaq.
First-order effects
- Bilibili adds roughly $2.8B of fresh capital and a Hong Kong-traded share class, giving mainland-adjacent investors direct exposure without routing through Nasdaq, where the stock has already re-rated ~10x since the 2018 IPO.
- The pricing lands close to the approved ~$3B plan even as the debut opened down more than 6%, meaning the raise completes essentially on target despite soft first-day demand.
Second-order effects
- Fellow members of the March 2018 US-debut cohort such as iQiyi now have a fully validated playbook — file, clear approval at an upsized target, list — lowering the execution risk for any peer weighing the same route.
- Hong Kong's exchange captures a growing share of China-consumer-tech fundraising and the associated index and trading flow, strengthening its position as the natural second venue when these companies next tap markets.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, dual US-Hong Kong listings become the default capital-structure choice for large Nasdaq-listed Chinese tech firms rather than a one-off hedge, splitting their investor bases and liquidity permanently across two exchanges.
- A first-day dip no longer gates a mega-raise, which tells future issuers that Hong Kong demand for established China tech names is deep enough to absorb multi-billion-dollar second listings even against weak opening prints.
The trend: Nasdaq-listed Chinese tech companies are layering Hong Kong secondary listings onto their original US floats, turning dual-exchange access into the standard funding structure rather than the exception.