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    Women’s soccer draws private-equity interest as team valuations soar

    The National Women’s Soccer League allows private equity firms to take majority control of franchise teams, unlike other U.S. professional sports leagues.
    Sixth Street and Carlyle have each have each struck deals at soaring team valuations.
    “We really see institutional capital as a way to really infuse additional capital behind our assets,” Jessica Berman, commissioner of the NWSL, told CNBC in an interview. 

    Women’s soccer is bringing private equity off the sidelines.
    While other major U.S. sports leagues – Major League Soccer, the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League – have allowed private equity investors to take passive, minority stakes, only the National Women’s Soccer League has allowed these firms to take majority control of the economics. 

    “We really see institutional capital as a way to really infuse additional capital behind our assets,” Jessica Berman, commissioner of the NWSL, told CNBC in an interview. 
    Sixth Street was the first to own a team in building out the San Francisco women’s team, Bay FC, last year. At the time, the firm paid a record $54 million for the league’s 14th franchise.
    The second-ever such deal closed a few weeks ago, as Carlyle partnered with men’s team, the Seattle Sounders FC, to buy that city’s counterpart in the NWSL, the Reign FC. The transaction valued the Reign at $58 million – far beyond the $3.5 million it sold for just five years ago. 
    As part of the deal, Sounders FC owner Adrian Hanauer serves as governor of Reign FC on the NWSL Board, while Carlyle’s head of private credit, Alex Popov, serves as alternate governor. Popov said NWSL attendance, up more than 40% this year, is evidence of the momentum in the sport. 
    “We’re seeing that inflection point, we’re seeing it for the right reasons,” Popov said. “And there is a lot of things for all of us to do, to continue to have growth.” 

    Sarah Gorden #11 of Angel City FC and Veronica Latsko #24 of OL Reign play the ball during the first half at Lumen Field on October 20, 2023 in Seattle, Washington. 
    Steph Chambers | Getty Images

    The Reign’s chief business officer, Maya Mendoza-Exstrom, said that the investment is matching the “intrinsic value of women’s sports.” She said Carlyle brings a depth of resources to the game, and that the firm can add value on the analytics side, as well as share expertise from its other portfolio companies. 
    “So we’ve got to make smart choices,” said Mendoza-Exstrom in an interview. “We have to run a sustainable business that is one where we are generating multiples of revenue over a very short period of time and putting a better product on the field.”
    This year, women’s elite sports revenue is poised to cross the billion-dollar mark for the first time, according to Deloitte. Soccer represents roughly half of that figure, Popov said. 
    The makeup of women’s sports revenue is tilted more toward merchandising sales, ticket sales, partnerships and sponsorships, in contrast to men’s sports revenue, which generates more from broadcast rights. However, in November, the NWSL signed a $240 million, four-year media deal – 40 times higher than the league’s previous deal, although still a fraction of what MLS brings in from broadcast rights. 
    Still, the tailwinds in broadcast are a key bullish thesis for many private-equity managers seeking to ink deals in NWSL, including Carlyle.
    Disney CEO Bob Iger and his wife, Willow Bay, are nearing a deal to acquire Angel City FC at a valuation of $250 million, according to a person familiar with the matter. That valuation would shatter valuation records for a women’s sports franchise. NWSL declined to comment on the potential Angel City FC deal.
    As valuations continue to spin upward, it’s likely the private-equity interest in the sport will persist. However, the league is still in try-out mode. 
    “We are treading carefully because institutional capital is very different from the types of individual owners who have typically carried the stewardship of teams in local markets,” Commissioner Berman said., “A lot of leagues are looking to our experience to see how that is going and whether there is a way to continue to moderate the way that institutional capital invests in sports.”
    The NBA, MLB, NHL and MLS allow private equity ownership of up to 30%. The issue is also being heavily debated in the NFL. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in May that the league is making “real progress” on the issue and that there is a lot of interest in the space. More

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    The five secrets to Ferrari’s success as a luxury brand

    This year, Ferrari for the first time surpassed Hermès as the most valuable luxury company in the world as measured by stock multiple, which gauges growth and profit prospects.
    The company is valued at more than $75 billion — roughly 1½ times the market cap of Ford or General Motors, which make millions of cars each year. Ferrari produced only 13,663 cars last year.
    To better understand what makes Ferrari a luxury brand, CNBC traveled to Ferrari headquarters in Maranello, Italy, to interview the company’s CEO, Benedetto Vigna.

    In the world of luxury, Hermès is arguably the gold standard.
    Its sales are growing double digits even as other luxury companies post declines or dramatically slower growth. Wealthy customers lucky enough to be anointed as Birkin-bag worthy can purchase a Birkin 25 for about $11,000 and flip it the same day for more than $23,000. Analysts predict Hermès could surpass Louis Vuitton in revenue within the next three years as the world’s largest luxury brand.

    Hermès stock is up 13% this year, while LVMH shares are flat and Kering is down 18%.
    There is one luxury company, however, that has raced past Hermès when it comes to growth and brand cache – Ferrari.
    This year, Ferrari for the first time surpassed Hermès as the most valuable luxury company in the world as measured by stock multiple, which gauges growth and profit prospects. Ferrari’s stock now trades at 50 times earnings, compared with 48 for Hermès and 23 for LVMH.

    The storied automaker, founded in 1947 by Enzo Ferrari as way to fund his race team, debuted on the New York Stock Exchange at $60 a share in 2015. It now trades at $410 a share.
    The company is valued at more than $75 billion — roughly 1½ times the market cap of Ford or General Motors, which make millions of cars each year. Ferrari produced only 13,663 cars last year.

    Ferrari is not a traditional luxury company, of course. It makes cars and has a race team, a merchandise company, a car-restoration company and many businesses that bear little resemblance to a maker of $1,300 scarves and $800 sandals.
    Yet in a recent research report, Bernstein luxury analyst Luca Solca posits that Ferrari and Hermès are similar, since both “occupy the pinnacle of the pricing pyramid” in their categories and are “perfectly positioned” to benefit from the surge in the global wealthy.
    To better understand what makes Ferrari a luxury brand, CNBC traveled to Ferrari headquarters in Maranello, Italy, to interview the company’s CEO, Benedetto Vigna.

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    Vigna is an unlikely luxury king. He spent most of his career at Geneva-based semiconductor maker STMicroelectronics, where he ran its micro-electromechanical systems and sensors group. He helped create the screen sensor technology used in iPhones, for example.
    His appointment to the top job at Ferrari in 2021 was a sign that technology would be core to the supercar maker’s growth, and in a sense, the future of luxury.  
    In an interview at the company’s $200 million E-Building, Vigna talked about the upcoming electric Ferrari, its commitment to sustainability and current global demand for Ferraris.
    The main topic of conversation, however, was on what makes Ferrari a leader in luxury, and what lessons other companies and executives serving wealthy clients could heed from its rise. Here are five main takeaways:

    1. Play hard to get

    Ferrari Purasangue SUV
    Adam Jeffery | CNBC

    As Solca points out in his research note, Ferrari and Hermès both “sell less than the market would take.” A lot less.
    Based on orders, analysts estimate Ferrari could easily sell two or three times its current production. Ferrari’s allure was built on scarcity and exclusivity.
    Even if you can afford a Ferrari, with an average price of $380,000, securing an order is nearly impossible.
    The wait time for a Purosangue, Ferrari’s pseudo-SUV, and other hot models is now up to three years, the longest in its history. Ask any Ferrari dealer about their biggest problem, and they’ll say: “Not enough cars, too many frustrated clients.”
    But CEO Vigna said the scarcity is part of Ferrari’s brand promise.
    “We have to stay true to our founders strategy, which is to always sell one car less than the market demands.”
    His strategy is to grow profit by making more on each car, rather than making more cars.
    “We always want to push the quality of revenues over quantity,” he said.
    Indeed, Ferrari’s production increases over the years have lagged far behind the growth of wealthy potential buyers. In 2010, it produced 6,573 cars, which means over the past 14 years, production has doubled. Over the same period, the global population of billionaires has more than tripled (and so has the population of those worth $30 million+ and $100 million+).
    Vigna said seeing a Ferrari on the road should be like seeing a rare and exotic animal. The imbalance also gives Ferrari a unique position in the auto world: The cars usually appreciate in value over time.
    Vigna said that if clients have to wait for one, all the better.
    “Waiting is part of the experience,” he said.
    During CNBC’s visit to the factory, a Ferrari customer took delivery of a new maroon 812 Superfast. He looked to be in his 70s or 80s. When he saw the car, and posed with it under the storied Ferrari entrance gates, his face lit up and he transformed into a 10-year-old on Christmas morning.
    Ferraris are special, because they are still special. 

    2. Make emotion the driver

    The Ferrari SP38 seen at Goodwood Festival of Speed 2022 on June 23rd in Chichester, England.
    Martyn Lucy | Getty Images

    Ask any Ferrari fan or owner what makes a Ferrari a Ferrari, and they might say the design, the engine sound, the handling, the power, the braking, or the 100 years of racing history behind that bright yellow badge.  
    Vigna says a true luxury product is defined by one chief characteristic: emotion.
    “Ferrari is a luxury company because it’s a company that is delivering a unique product. It’s connecting with the most inner part of people, the emotional side,” he said. “A luxury company is a company that is using technology, innovation, storytelling, heritage, everything, with the ultimate goal to feed that emotional side that we all have.”
    Vigna said Ferrari will never produce vehicles that people simply need for transportation.
    “When I get invitations to talk to conferences, I won’t attend if I hear two words — utility or mobility. We don’t make a useful product. We make an emotional product,” he told CNBC. 
    It’s similar to what LVMH Chairman Bernard Arnault refers to as “desirability.” It’s not enough to make a high-quality product, or an expensive product or one with more features or functions. It has to tug at the heart.

    3. The art of pricing

    An in-progress Ferrari at the supercar maker’s E-Building in Maranello, Italy.
    Crystal Lau | CNBC

    Based on Ferrari’s soaring prices, you’d think pricing is based on profit demands and Wall Street’s obsession with margin growth.
    Yet Vigna said the base price for each model is actually set about a month before its launch – in an unusual process.
    “The way we define price in our company is very simple,” he said. “One month before the car is ready for the unveil, we go on the track — me and several people — and we drive it for a day or a day and a half. And then with fresh emotion in our body, we define the price. It’s me, the CMO and the CFO defining the price. We share the emotion.”
    Clearly, those emotions are rising. The cheapest Ferrari in 2012 was the California, with a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $195,000. Today’s entry-level Ferrari, the Roma, starts at $273,000, or 40% more.
    Ferrari is launching more limited-edition and special-edition cars that command far higher prices: The SF90 XX Stradale starts at around $900,000, and all 799 coupes and open-top Spiders were sold out when it was unveiled. The SP3 Daytona, with only 599 units, starts at $2.3 million.
    Perhaps the biggest boost to profits is personalization. Today’s Ferrari buyers increasingly want custom paint colors, leather, fabrics, stitching, exposed carbon-fiber and other personal details that make it their own. Those personal touches can add anywhere from $100,000 to $500,000 to the sale price.
    Vigna said his “value over volume” strategy means Ferrari can grow profits in the double digits with only modest increases in cars made.

    4. The road to VIP status

    Ferrari would never admit it, but dealers will tell you that customers have to work their way up a costly commercial ladder to get access to new Ferraris and especially limited editions.
    It’s similar to the path Rolex buyers have to follow to eventually get a new Daytona, or Hermès customers have to take to eventually get a Birkin.
    In short, you start by buying a basic (and sometimes less popular) model. Then you can buy a slightly more desirable model, or two or three. If you attend Ferrari events, show support for the brand, even join a Ferrari racing program, you can eventually become eligible for more expensive and even limited-edition models.
    Nearly three-quarters of all Ferraris are sold to existing customers. Which means starting at the bottom of the ladder is difficult.
    “Ferrari and Hermès reserve their most desirable products for their most loyal customers,” Solca said. “This in effect ‘bundles’ access and amps up desirability.”

    5. Happy employees means happier customers

    Workers at the new Ferrari NV E-building factory in Maranello, Italy, on Friday, June 21, 2024. The site in Maranello, built over the past couple of years in near-total secrecy, will make Ferrari’s first EV from late 2025 alongside hybrid models and cars powered by combustion engines. Photographer: Francesca Volpi/Bloomberg via Getty Images
    Francesca Volpi | Bloomberg | Getty Images

    Luxury companies often mirror the rising inequality in the economy. Even well-paid and well-respected employees work every day to make products they will never be able to afford or experience.
    Vigna has sought to bridge those two worlds.
    Shortly after becoming CEO, he discovered that many Ferrari employees had never even driven in a Ferrari. The company brought employees to the test track to take a ride and get a first-hand appreciation of the importance of their work.
    Last year, he also announced an employee stock ownership program, giving each employee the option to become a shareholder of Ferrari, receiving a one-off grant of shares, free of charge, worth up to about 2,065 euros ($2,229)
    While common in the U.S., employee stock programs are rare in Europe. Vigna said he learned to appreciate employee stock plans – and the importance of having employees share the benefits of shareholders – while working in Silicon Valley.
    “This proposal came from the team and it was approved right away, by me and the board,” he said. “The people are the center of the company. You need to motivate all of them. If you give shares, they all feel part of the company, like owners of the company. All companies have people. Only a few companies are made of people.”
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    Why Chinese banks are now vanishing

    The savings and loan (S&L) crisis terrorised America’s banks for years. Starting in the mid-1980s, a mix of aggressive lending growth, poor risk controls and a property downturn contributed to the collapse or consolidation of over 1,000 small lending institutions. China’s smallest banks are now suffering from many of the same ailments. But until recently few have collapsed or merged with others.That is starting to change. In the week ending June 24th, 40 Chinese banks vanished as they were absorbed into bigger ones. Not even at the height of the S&L crisis did lenders disappear at such a clip. More

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    How Starbucks caffeinates local economies

    Starbucks offers endless opportunities for innovation. Parts of social media delight in hacking the chain’s menu to create highly instagrammable drinks. Fancy a “cake batter Frappuccino”? Simply order a “vanilla bean crème Frappuccino”, add a pump of hazelnut syrup and ask the barista to put a cake pop in the blender. How about some “liquid cocaine”? That involves four shots of espresso with four pumps of white-chocolate syrup, served over ice.A new working paper suggests the purveyor of coffee-based milkshakes offers other innovation, too. Choi Jinkyong, Jorge Guzman and Mario Small, all of Columbia University, find that a new Starbucks in an American neighbourhood without a coffee shop leads to the creation of between 1.1 and 3.5 new companies a year over the next seven years. That, the authors argue, owes to the café’s role as a “third place”—somewhere people can gather without a purpose. Branches “help entrepreneurs form and mobilise networks”, they write. More

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    How much cash should be removed from the financial system?

    The world is still, in a sense, swimming in cash. Or at least the electronic equivalent: central-bank reserves. The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), a club of central banks, estimates that the balance-sheets of rich-country central banks amount to roughly 50% of collective GDP. That is down from 70% in 2021—a reduction which reflects quantitative tightening (QT), or the offloading of assets acquired while easing—but is still far above the pre-global-financial-crisis norm of around 10%.Qt is intended to enhance the disinflationary effect of raising interest rates. As assets roll off a central bank’s balance-sheet, the corresponding reserves are extinguished. The process should, in the words of Janet Yellen, America’s treasury secretary and a former chair of the Federal Reserve, be as interesting as watching paint dry. Yet if reserves are to return to anything like their earlier 10% level, that may not be the case. Some worry such a reduction would prompt nasty surprises in the financial system. Hawkish types nevertheless argue that central banks ought to ensure reserves once again become “scarce”. They suggest that the “abundant” era created by quantitative easing has been destabilising, since banks no longer need to economise on their holdings or rely on the disciplining effects of money markets. More

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    America’s banks are more exposed to a downturn than they appear

    The earliest depiction of the ouroboros—a serpent coiled in a circle, eating its own tail—was found in the tomb of Tutankhamun, a pharaoh who ruled Egypt around 1320BC. It was used in his funerary texts to depict the infinite nature of time, and later cropped up all over the place. In Ancient Rome it signified the seasonal cycle of the calendar year; in Norse mythology the snake was large enough to encircle the world. The idea is also an allegory for the modern financial system. It depicts how credit risk has been cycled out of banks, only to be gobbled up by them once more.After the global financial crisis of 2007-09, lawmakers in America and Europe penned new rules to govern finance. These had two aims. First, to force banks to hold more capital against their assets, so as to cushion losses. Second, to curb the risky activities in which banks had indulged. Some, such as proprietary trading, were prohibited; others were simply discouraged, sometimes by assigning higher “risk weights” to spicier assets. Both aims are measured by “common equity tier 1 capital” or cet1, which divides bank equity by asset value, adjusted for risk weights. More

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    China hopes to reach a solution with the EU on EV tariffs ‘as soon as possible’

    China’s Ministry of Commerce said Thursday it hoped to reach an agreement soon with the European Union on the bloc’s planned tariffs for imported Chinese electric cars.
    The EU started an investigation last year into the role of subsidies in China’s electric vehicle production.
    The new energy vehicle industry, which includes hybrid and battery-only cars, has grown rapidly in China and automakers such as BYD have started to export the vehicles to Europe and other regions.

    Employees work on the assembly line of electric vehicles in a digital automotive factory of Jiangling Motors on May 17, 2024. 
    Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty Images

    BEIJING — China hopes to reach an agreement with the European Union soon on the bloc’s planned tariffs for imported Chinese electric cars, the Ministry of Commerce said Thursday.
    The European Commission announced in mid-June that if discussions with China did not go well, the bloc would start to impose additional duties on imported Chinese EVs on Thursday, July 4. “Definitive measures” would take effect four months after that date, according to a press release.

    “We hope that the European side will work with China to meet each other halfway, show sincerity, speed up the consultation process, and, on the basis of rules and reality, reach a mutually acceptable solution as soon as possible,” Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesperson He Yadong told reporters in Mandarin, according to a CNBC translation.
    He reiterated China’s opposition to the European Union’s anti-subsidy probe and pointed out the two sides still have a four-month window.

    China’s Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao and European Commission Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis met virtually on June 22 to discuss the EU probe, according to the commerce ministry.
    Spokesperson He said Thursday that the two sides had held multiple rounds of talks at a technical level, but he did not specify whether the talks were ongoing or had ended.
    The EU started an investigation last year into the role of subsidies in China’s electric vehicle production. The new energy vehicle industry, which includes hybrid and battery-only cars, has grown rapidly in China and automakers such as BYD have started to export the vehicles to Europe and other regions.
    The Chinese government spent $230.8 billion over more than a decade to develop its electric car industry, according to an analysis by the U.S.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. More

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    Hong Kong’s IPO market is finally starting to turn around, consulting firm EY says

    The market for initial public offerings in Hong Kong is set to improve significantly over the next five years, said George Chan, global IPO leader at EY.
    “I would say if the interest rate can be further cut down, 1 percent maybe, that would have a significant effect on the IPO market,” Chan said.
    “Our HK cap markets team is very busy and has a strong pipeline for H2.  We expect to see many HKSE listings,” Marcia Ellis, global co-chair of private equity practice at Morrison Foerster in Hong Kong, said in an email Wednesday.

    Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing celebrates the 24th anniversary of its listing on June 21, 2024.
    China News Service | China News Service | Getty Images

    BEIJING — The market for initial public offerings in Hong Kong is set to improve significantly over the next five years, starting in the second half of this year, George Chan, global IPO leader at EY, told CNBC in an interview Wednesday.
    “I think it will take a couple years to go back to the peak [in 2021] but the trend is there,” Chan said. “I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

    High U.S. interest rates, regulatory scrutiny, slower economic growth and U.S.-China tensions have constrained Greater China IPOs in the last three years.
    EY said in a report that while the volume of IPOs and proceeds in the U.S. increased significantly in the first half of 2024 compared to the same period a year ago, mainland China and Hong Kong saw a sharp decline in listings.
    Many of the macro trends are now starting to turn around, which can support more IPOs in Hong Kong, said Chan, who is based in Shanghai.
    “We are seeing a reversing trend,” he told CNBC. “We are seeing more of these [U.S. dollar] funds, they are moving back to Hong Kong. The main reason is that Hong Kong has already factored in these uncertainties.”
    The Hang Seng Index is up more than 5% year-to-date after four straight years of decline — which was the worst such losing streak in the history of the index, according to Wind Information.

    Stock chart icon

    “Our HK cap markets team is very busy and has a strong pipeline for H2.  We expect to see many HKSE listings,” Marcia Ellis, global co-chair of private equity practice at Morrison Foerster in Hong Kong, said in an email Wednesday.
    Many companies that were waiting for a listing in mainland China’s A share market have decided to switch to one in Hong Kong, she said. “Previously [China Securities Regulatory Commission] approval was slowing things down but recently our team has gotten CSRC approvals pretty quickly.” 
    In June, China issued new measures to promote venture capital, and authorities spoke publicly about supporting IPOs, especially in Hong Kong. Investors and analysts said they are now looking at the speed of IPO approvals for signs of a significant change.
    Chan said another supportive factor for Hong Kong IPOs is that many of the companies listed in the market are based in mainland China, where economic growth is “quite satisfactory.”
    He expects consumer companies could be among the near-term IPO beneficiaries.
    “As the economy slowly recovers, a lot of people in China are willing to spend,” he said, noting that was especially the case in less developed parts of the country.
    Official national-level data have showed that retail sales are growing more slowly in China — up by just 3.7% in May from a year ago versus growth of nearly 10% or more in prior years.
    Also significant for global asset allocation, the U.S. Federal Reserve and other major central banks are pulling back from aggressive interest rate hikes. High rates have made Treasury bonds a more attractive investment for many institutions instead of IPOs.
    “I would say if the interest rate can be further cut down, 1% maybe, that would have a significant effect on the IPO market,” Chan said.
    Hong Kong IPOs raised $1.5 billion during the first half of the year, a 34% drop from a year ago, EY said in a report released late last month. Back in 2021 and 2020, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange saw nearly 100 or more IPOs a year raising tens of billions of dollars, according to the report.
    In comparison, mainland China IPOs raised $4.6 billion in the first six months of 2024 — a drop of 85% from the year-ago period, according to EY.

    Bonnie Chan, CEO of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited, said during a conference last week that so far this year, the Hong Kong exchange has received 73 new listing applications — a 50% increase compared to the second half of last year. She is not related to EY’s George Chan.
    “The pipeline is building up nicely,” she said, noting about 110 IPOs in total are in line for a Hong Kong listing. “All we need is a set of good market conditions so these things get to launch and price nicely,” she added.

    Improving post-IPO performance

    “What we need is a strong pipeline,” EY’s Chan said. “We need an interested investor with the money to invest, and we need a good aftermarket performance.”
    Hong Kong IPO returns are improving. The average first-day return of new listings on the Hong Kong stock exchange in the first half of 2024 was 24%, far more than the average of 1% in the same period last year, according to EY.
    “The aftermarket performance of Hong Kong IPOs has been doing quite good compared to the past five years,” Chan said. “These things added together are projecting an upward trend for the Hong Kong market [in the] next 5 years.”
    Chan said he expects the number of deals to pick up in the second half of 2024.

    He said those will likely be medium-sized — between 2 billion Hong Kong dollars to 5 billion Hong Kong dollars ($260 million to $640 million) — but added he expects better market momentum in 2025.
    Slowing economic growth and geopolitical uncertainty have also weighed on early-stage investment into Chinese startups.
    Total venture funding from foreign investors into Greater China deals plunged to $19 billion in 2023, down from $67 billion in 2021, according to Preqin, an alternative assets research firm.
    U.S. investors have not participated in the largest deals in recent years, while investors from Greater China have remained involved, the firm said in a report last month.

    U.S. IPO outlook

    As for IPOs of China-based companies in the U.S., EY’s Chan said he expects current scrutiny on the listings to be “temporary,” although data security rules would remain a hurdle.
    In early 2023, the China Securities Regulatory Commission formalized new rules that require domestic companies to comply with national security measures and the personal data protection law before going public overseas. A China-based company with more than 1 million users must pass Beijing’s cybersecurity review to list overseas.
    “As time goes on, when people are more familiar with the Chinese [securities regulator] approval process and they are more become comfortable with geopolitical tensions, more of the large companies … would consider [the] U.S. market as their final destination,” Chan said.
    “When the time comes I think the institutional investors would be interested in these sizeable Chinese companies, as they pretty much want to make money.”
    He declined to comment on specific IPOs, and said certain high-profile listing plans are “isolated incidents.”
    Chinese ride-hailing company Didi, which delisted from New York in 2021, has denied reports it plans to list in Hong Kong next year. Fast-fashion company Shein, which does most of its manufacturing in China, is trying to list in London following criticism in the U.S., according to a CNBC report. More