The company expects the listing to be completed by the end of year, giving it dual primary listings in Hong Kong and New York.

Daniel Zhang, Alibaba Group chairman and CEO, said in a statement that the move was aimed at “fostering a wider and more diversified investor base to share in Alibaba’s growth and future, especially from China and other markets in Asia”.

Alibaba completed a secondary listing in Hong Kong in November 2019, after having gone public in New York in 2014 following a US$25 billion initial public offering – then the biggest IPO in history.

But the company’s shares have lost nearly half their value as Alibaba faces stiffer competition and after taking a blow from Beijing’s wide-ranging regulatory crackdown on Chinese technology companies.

Mike Leung, an investment manager with Hong Kong’s Wocom Securities, said Alibaba’s move was expected and that more US-listed Chinese companies would likely follow on the back of tighter scrutiny by American regulators.

“I believe that this move is motivated by political considerations,” Leung said. “Given the current political tension between China and the US, the risk of delisting from the US is quite high.”