After initially going public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014, Alibaba (BABA  ) placed a secondary listing in Hong Kong. The debuted shares traded 6.9% higher than their issue price of 176 Hong Kong dollars ($22.49) and at a small premium to the parent shares in New York. The company raised more than $11.3 billion from this secondary listing. This amount could also rise up to $12.9 if an over-allotment option is exercised. An over-allotment option is granted to underwriters (an investment bank usually) and gives them the right to sell as many as 15% more shares than was originally planned either to raise additional capital or to prevent the stock from falling below the initial offer price. Alibaba will initially offer only 2.5% of the offering to individual investors and the rest to institutional investors but this may increase all the way up to 10% depending on the demand.

Back in 2014 when Alibaba was planning its IPO it planned to list in Hong Kong; however, due to governance issues did not receive approval from Hong Kong regulators. Alibaba's $25 billion IPO is the largest in the world, followed by the Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. Analysts predict that Alibaba's presence in the Hong Kong market will help boost trading volumes as it has experienced slow profit growth in recent years. Its presence can also encourage other companies such as Didi Chuxing and ByteDance Inc to go public in Hong Kong versus the United States. Bright Smart Securities estimated that Alibaba'as Hong Kong listing could increase trading volumes of the Hang Seng Index by approximately 10%. Andrew Sullivan, a director at Pearl Bridge Partners stated that "Alibaba will be the leading light for bringing more companies in. You may see some new money being allocated. The keen competitor is going to be Tencent, which has historically traded at a premium."

However, many question why Alibaba chose to go public in Hong Kong as the territory is falling into a recession as it is not only experiencing a lot of internal changes and turmoil but is similarly affected by the trade war. A Hong Kong based analyst, who stayed anonymous, commented that ""The homecoming for Alibaba at this period of time is certainly welcomed by locals here and provided a much-needed boost of confidence. "It could create a trend and encourage other mainland business to come list in Hong Kong, instead of prioritizing the U.S. markets. Hong Kong's status of one of the world's top international financial hubs is endangered". Hong Kong is still attractive because it is one of the world's most active markets for IPOs. Approximately $36.7 billion were raised in 2018 and Hong Kong's stock exchange is the fifth largest after the NYSE, Nasdaq, Tokyo and Shanghai in terms of market capitalization. Size is very important for exchanges because the more buyers and sellers that are active on the exchange the more that a company can raise from its IPO. Hong Kong is deemed by investors as having a more fair and transparent legal system yet are still able to reach investors from mainland China. Capital controls prevent Chinese investors from easily investing in stock markets oversees and this will give them the chance to buy shares from the country's most valuable corporation.