A SENIOR vice president with NYSE Euronex said that more and more Chinese firms are seeking to launch initial public offerings (IPOs) in the United States and around 15 to 20 firms are expected to get listed this year.

    “What I’ve seen is a nice building process from two years ago when we only had two IPOs. One of them VIP (Vipshop Holdings Ltd.) was listed here and did extremely well,” said David A. Ethridge, senior vice president and head of the Capital Markets Group at NYSE Euronext.

    Shares of Vipshop, an online discount retailer, traded at around US$165 Monday, compared with its IPO price of US$6.50. The firm made its trading debut in March 2012. China’s social gaming portal YY Inc., which was listed on NASDAQ in November 2012, also saw its shares surge to around US$56 from its IPO price of US$10.50.

    Two things happened to increase the likelihood of companies coming from China, Ethridge said.

    “One was the public capital markets in the United States were very strong,” he said. The major U.S. stock indices rose 25 percent or more during 2013, which is very helpful to all IPOs and certainly helpful to the technology sector, and most of the companies coming from China are technology firms, he said.

    “The second thing that happened was the Chinese companies that were already public were trading up,” which helped investors feel positive about these IPOs coming from China, he said.

    Ethridge said he doesn’t believe accounting concerns should be an issue today with Chinese companies. “They’ve got first-class, world-class advisors around them.”

    “As we came into 2014, you saw a lot more people thinking positively about the IPO market in the United States, and likewise, you saw the same thing in China,” Ethridge said. “I think it will obviously depend on whether the IPO windows are there and if you are confident about launching [IPOs].” (Xinhua)