Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is weighing up the opportunity of getting more funding via a second listing on Hong Kong’s stock exchange that could raise up to $20 billion.

The company is said to be working with financial advisers on the offering, Bloomberg reported. It adds that Alibaba is aiming to file its listing application in Hong Kong in the second half of the year, citing “unnamed people with knowledge of the matter.”

Alibaba has already made a massive amount of cash from investors, having held its record-breaking $25 billion initial public offering in New York in 2014. The company wanted to list in Hong Kong back then too, but its application was rejected because of its governance structure, Bloomberg reported. At Alibaba, a “self-selecting group of senior managers” is said to control the majority of its board appointments.

Alibaba founder Jack Ma said last year he would “seriously consider” a listing in Hong Kong when it was reported to be preparing to allow dual-class share listings. The intention is for Alibaba to diversify its funding channels and boost liquidity, Bloomberg said.

Analyst Holger Mueller of Constellation Research Inc. told SiliconANGLE that it looks like Alibaba’s original plan is now back in place since Hong Kong has changed its regulations to allow dual-class share listings.

“This is an interesting move by Alibaba, which wanted to list in Hong Kong in the first place,” Mueller said. “Cloud companies have an insatiable hunger for capital, and since it is the only large infrastructure-as-a-service player in Hong Kong, it’s a good move.”

Alibaba’s second listing, if it happens, would come at a time when Chinese firms face an increasingly hostile U.S. government, which has blacklisted several of its leading technology companies.

Alibaba is currently valued at around $400 billion, with its stock up 13% this year alone. A spokesperson for Alibaba declined to comment on the report.

Photo: Alibaba