Chinese stock exchanges increasingly favored by tech IPOs

BEIJING - All eight Chinese tech companies that went public in the first quarter of this year were listed in China, a sign perhaps that stock markets at home are back in favor.

In recent years, much to the vexation of China's securities regulator and investors, many of the country's best known tech firms--Tencent, Baidu, Alibaba, JD.com, travel information aggregator Qunar--have listed in the United States or Hong Kong. The rigid requirements imposed by regulators at home made it too hard, or perhaps simply too tiresome, for them to engage in the review process.

The domestic stock market, especially in Shenzhen where smaller firms are traded, has come back into favor with tech firms trying to go public over the past year, says accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in a report released on Thursday.

A more streamlined and transparent listing procedure for IPOs has made a domestic offering a more attractive option, PwC says.

All of the eight tech firms who went public in Q1 on Chinese exchanges raised $1.1 billion, more in both absolute and average terms than the 987 million raised by 11 similar IPOs in the same period a year ago.

"While there are a number of Chinese technology companies in the US IPO pipeline, we anticipate significant growth in tech listings on domestic exchanges as a result of both the new registration system and increased valuations." said Gao Jianbin, a PwC partner.