Page 40 - CCFA Journal - 8th Issue

合规 Compliance 加中金融

然而，这涉及到一家私营公司的控股股东(阿里巴巴集团当时尚未公开上市)。另外，雅虎(Yahoo)和软银(Softbank)当时也
拥有该公司近 80%的股份。因此，其本质是私人商业伙伴之间的争吵，而不是从公共市场偷窃，如果是这样的话，肯定
会将这个问题升级到一个全新的公开水平。我们无法想象今天阿里巴巴和腾讯这样的上市公司会重演这一幕。

然而，不可否认的是，正如支付宝案所证明的那样，缺乏对投资者的法律保护确实为这种结构的滥用提供了途径。投资者
必须自己做出判断。好消息是，纵观历史，这种结构的滥用从来没有猖獗过。最后它总是以诚信管理收尾。

我们永远没有办法消除所有的风险，但投资者可以采取一些措施来保护自己。投资者想要确定的是，海外上市公司中存在
大量的员工持股。换句话说，要确保公司内部人士(创始人、管理层和员工)与海外投资者一起投资于同一个海外工具。这
样，利益就会变得更加一致，从而减少了内部人士不良行为的动机。

However, this involved the controlling shareholder of a private company (Alibaba Group wasn’t publicly listed at the time). Also
two of its investors (Yahoo and Softbank) at the time owned close to 80% of the company. Thus, the nature was that of a falling
out between private business partners, rather than a theft from the public markets, which had it been the case would have surely
escalated this issue to a whole new level of publicity. We can’t imagine this episode being repeated by companies like Alibaba and
Tencent today while being publicly listed companies.

At the end of the day though, it’s undeniable that the lack of legal investor protection does give ways for possible abuse of the
structure, as the Alipay case has demonstrated. Investors have to make their own judgement. The good news is that throughout
history, abuse of the structure has never been rampant. In the end, it always goes back to management integrity.

There is never a way to eliminate all of this risk, but there is something investors can do to protect themselves. What investors
want to make sure is that there is significant insider ownership in the offshore listed company. In other words, make sure the
company insiders (founder, management, employees) are invested alongside the offshore investors in the same offshore vehicle.
With this, the interests become more aligned, resulting in less incentives for bad behavior by the insiders.

迁移到香港上市

历史上，美国一直是中国科技企业海外上市的首选地点。中国发行人更喜欢在美国上市的原因有很多——美国拥有全球最
深的资本池; 美国投资者熟悉科技投资，对增长和冒险有着浓厚的兴趣; 发行者可以获得更高的估值;从信息披露/监管要求
的角度来看，香港也是一个易于上市的市场(在很多情况下，美国的上市标准实际上比香港更宽松，所需的文件也更少)。

然而，自特朗普政府威胁要让在美上市的中国企业退市以来，情况发生了很大变化。双方的纷争仍在继续，双方的监管机
构未能就某些披露和审计要求达成一致。这给发行者和投资者都带来了很大的不确定性。为了降低这种风险，在美国上市
的中国企业已开始寻求同时在香港上市。为了实现这一目标，香港交易所(HKEX)在 2018 年进行了一项改革，为中国企业
的“返乡”铺平了道路。这其中包括第 8A 章，该章允许具有加权投票权(WVR)结构的公司上市。第 19C 允许对主要在其
他证券交易所上市的科技公司进行所谓“二次上市”的简化程序。此后，香港又迎来了新一轮 IPO 浪潮，如下图所示。

Migration to Hong Kong listings

Historically the US has been the preferred venue for offshore Chinese tech listings. There are many reasons why Chinese issuers
prefer to list in the US - it has the world’s deepest pool of capital; US investors are familiar with tech investing, with strong
appetite for growth and risk-taking; issuers can fetch higher valuations; and from a disclosure/regulatory requirement perspective,
it is also an easy market to list on (in many cases the listing criteria in the US is actually less stringent, with less paperwork
required, compared to Hong Kong).

However, much has changed since the Trump administration, which threatened to delist Chinese companies listed in the US. This
feud is still ongoing, with the regulators on both sides not being able to come to an agreement on certain disclosure and audit
requirements. This has created much uncertainty for both issuers and investors. To mitigate this risk, Chinese companies which
are listed in the US have started to pursue dual listings with Hong Kong. And to facilitate this, Hong Kong Exchange (HKEX)
instituted a reform in 2018 which paved ways for the “homecoming” of Chinese companies. This includes Chapter 8A, which
allowed the listings of companies with weighted voting rights (WVR) structures. Chapter 19C allowed for a simplified listing
procedure for so-called “secondary listing” of tech companies that are primarily listed in other stock exchanges. Since this, a new
wave of IPOs have come to Hong Kong, as shown below.

CCFA JOURNAL OF FINANCE August 2022
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