Visitors watch a screen showing smart sorting technologies at a JD.com booth at an expo during World Intelligence Congress in Tianjin, June 30, 2017. (Photo / VCG)

Chinese mainland’s No. 2 online retailer JD.com Inc will start taking investor orders Friday for its second Hong Kong listing, according to people familiar with the matter, hot on the heels of NetEase Inc’s US$2.7 billion share sale in the special administrative region.

The company could raise at least US$2 billion, Bloomberg News has reported

JD.com filed a preliminary prospectus on Friday with the Hong Kong stock exchange, which doesn’t contain any share sale details. The company could raise at least US$2 billion, Bloomberg News has reported. The filing comes on the same day online gaming firm NetEase told prospective investors it was planning to price its Hong Kong listing at HK$123 each.

A company spokesperson declined to comment on whether it planned to begin taking orders Friday.

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Escalating tensions between Washington and Beijing are increasing risks for Chinese companies like JD and NetEase who seek to broaden their investor base even as US capital markets are becoming frosty toward Chinese firms.

The twin debuts would follow Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s US$13 billion Hong Kong stock sale last year, hailed as a homecoming for mainland companies and a win for the Hong Kong stock exchange, which lost many of the largest tech corporations to US bourses because it didn’t allow dual-class share voting at the time -- a requirement that’s since been relaxed.

Bank of America Corp, UBS Group AG and CLSA Ltd are joint sponsors of JD’s Hong Kong share sale.

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