What happened
Shares of Chinese electric car leader Nio (NIO 2.11%) jumped in early trading Monday after the company announced, Sunday night, that it will conduct a secondary listing of its Class A ordinary shares on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong.
Nio stock is up a solid 7% as of 10:40 a.m. ET.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
Nio says its shares will begin trading in Hong Kong on March 10, in lots of 10 shares.
To be clear, Nio is keeping its shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange as American depositary shares (ADSs, or sometimes ADRs). Moreover, the Hong Kong-listed shares "will be fully fungible with the ADSs listed on the NYSE," meaning that they are the same shares, just being traded in different locations.
Separately, Reuters is reporting that Nio will also list its shares in Singapore, although that listing is still under review and there's no stated date for when they will begin trading.
Also to be clear, Nio is simply making it possible to trade its shares in these two new locations. It is not creating or selling any new shares, not diluting its stock, and not raising any new money.
Now what
Now what does this mean for investors? Honestly, it's kind of a non-event except for one thing:
As a China-based stock, Nio is at risk of falling subject to a threat by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to delist foreign stocks that do not (or are not permitted by their home governments to) "submit documentation to the SEC establishing that [they are] not owned or controlled by a governmental entity in [their] foreign jurisdiction," along with "certain additional disclosures."
In listing its shares abroad, this innovative electric car company is ensuring that even if its shares are delisted in the U.S., there will still be places to trade them abroad. Investors today are taking some comfort from that assurance.
