Lex OPINION:
President Joe Biden widened the US blacklist of Chinese companies to 59 names last week. You might expect extra curbs to deter Chinese tech businesses planning to float in New York and benefit Hong Kong and mainland exchanges. You would be wrong on both counts.
Online recruitment platform Kanzhun and ecommerce company Dmall are among those intending to press ahead with listings. Neither are on the US blacklist. They hope to benefit from newfound clarity on which Chinese businesses the US will tolerate.
Chinese tech companies have good reason to prefer New York markets. Hong Kong has cooled. The number of listings has fallen and capital raised is running at half last year's level.
First-day share price jumps are less likely. Nearly a third of debutantes posted a first-day decline in the first quarter, with median gains at just 2.1 per cent, according to Bloomberg data.