There is strong appetite among Chinese companies to list on U.S. stock exchanges, but these IPOs have become a more complicated process, according to Kobe Ge, the head of China at the New York Stock Exchange.

Despite the negative impact last year from Covid-19 restrictions and U.S. regulatory uncertainty, many of those issues are now resolved and “we still see very strong interest from Chinese businesses for listing in the U.S.,” he told CNBC’s East Tech West conference in the Nansha district of Guangzhou, China, on Tuesday.

But they’re not so familiar with the procedures, which have proved to be more challenging of late, he added. That’s according to a CNBC translation of his Mandarin-language remarks.    

“Previously, listing in the U.S. was relatively easy,” Ge said, noting it would take just four-and-a-half or five months for Chinese firms to complete a U.S. IPO.

“Given some new procedures, a company may need to spend more time, a 12-month preparation period,” he said, pointing to new rules from the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

The new measures, effective since March 31, lay out a filing process for domestic companies wanting to list in the U.S. or Hong Kong, and require them to comply with national security measures and the personal data protection law before going public overseas. 

Amid a tepid U.S. IPO market, the handful of Chinese names that have been able to list this year have mostly been smaller companies.

Rising political tensions between Washington and Beijing have also led to uncertainty among Chinese companies and investors, said Ge.

U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order in August aimed at regulating new U.S. investments and expertise that supports China’s development of sensitive tech. The new measures, which is expected to be implemented next year, targets investment in semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum computing and certain artificial intelligence capabilities.

“Of course, specifics haven’t been released yet, everyone may be watching and waiting, so it may cause investors to wait and see regarding these changes,” Ge said.

Still, Ge remained bullish that Chinese listings in overseas markets will rebound so long as domestic firms focus on building a strong business.

He likened the situation to a ship at sea. “Of course, everyone must pay attention to the weather, and at the same time they should pay more attention to whether the ship has been built well,” he said.

Today, that means investors are looking more for mature business models and predictable profits, rather than just high growth, he said. “So you need to build a very good ship.”

The overall U.S. IPO market should also improve in the April to October period next year, Ge said.

Robert H. McCooey, Jr., a vice chairman at Nasdaq, shared a similar view underlining there’s a strong pipeline of Chinese companies that intend to list on the exchange soon.

“I think it is 116 right now, that are on file or that we know will be filing soon,” he told a separate session at CNBC’s East Tech West event.

“And the much more interesting aspect of it is now with the new process by CSRC … everyone in China, everyone around the world gets to see the companies that are in the process, because the way that the regulations have come through,” he added, referring to the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

This is a marked increase from the 65 Chinese companies, McCooey highlighted in an earlier CNBC interview in June.

As of January 2023, there were 252 Chinese companies listed on the U.S. exchanges — including NYSE, Nasdaq, and NYSE American, — with a total market capitalization of $1.03 trillion, according to official data.  

“We’re delighted that we’ve had a couple of listings that have gone through the CSRC process … there’s three or four that should be approved in the near future,” he added. “I think that gives confidence to companies that are interested in listing outside of China.”

BEIJING — In the third high-level U.S. official visit to China in about a month, U.S. special envoy for climate John Kerry emphasized efforts to stabilize the bilateral relationship.

“Now we’re in a place where because of the efforts of President Biden and President Xi to try to stabilize the relationship, we can now I hope, make progress between now and the meeting in the UAE, in December, of COP 28,” Kerry said Tuesday, in opening remarks at a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang.

About a week earlier, Li met with U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in the same building. In late June, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also met there with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Blinken’s visit brought a thaw to increasingly frigid relations in which climate talks, one of the few areas of cooperation, have even seen temporary suspension.

The U.S. and China are also the world’s largest polluters. In recent weeks, global temperatures have climbed to record highs.

The world faces great “challenges” in responding to climate change, Li said.

“It is incumbent upon China, the United States, and indeed all countries in the world to strengthen coordination with consensus and speed of actions,” he said, according to an official translation of his Mandarin-language remarks.

Earlier on Tuesday, Kerry also emphasized stability in his meeting with China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi.

“Biden is very committed to stability within this relationship and also to achieve efforts together, that can make a significant difference in the world,” Kerry said.

“Our hope is now that this could be the beginning of a new definition of collaboration and the capacity to resolve the differences between us.”

Climate talks between the U.S. and China were temporarily suspended after then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August last year, drawing the ire of Beijing.

China considers the democratically self-ruled island as part of its territory.

Tensions between the U.S. and China have also spilled over into technology, with U.S. efforts to limit Chinese access to high-end semiconductor technology.

“Of course, pushing for cooperation on climate change is under the larger scope of China-U.S. relations,” Wang said, according to a CNBC translation of the Mandarin.

He said the two countries could resolve problems as long as the dialogue was based on “equality” and with “mutual respect.”

Following the latest U.S. senior official visits to Beijing, high-level Chinese officials are expected to visit the U.S. at an unspecified date.

Since arriving in Beijing on Sunday, Kerry has focused on talks with his climate counterpart Xie Zhenhua. Kerry is set to depart on Wednesday.

Parts of meetings open to the press were tense.

During the meeting with the Chinse premier, Kerry brought up a report of a 52°C (125.6°F) temperature reading in China a few days earlier. Li interjected to question whether it was from an official weather report or “small” media, and whether it was a reading from the ground or air.

“Oh. Well, it may not be,” Kerry said. He said that he’d seen the news on TV and said his point was about the rate of change and predictions for the future.

State-run China News Agency on Monday said an “automatically” recorded temperature from a local weather station showed the Sanbao township in Xinjiang reached a record high of 52.2°C on Sunday.

SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific looked set for a lower start on Wednesday as investors await the release of inflation data from China and the U.S.

The Nikkei futures contract in Chicago was at 26,110 while its counterpart in Osaka was at 26,060 — lower than the Nikkei 225’s last close at 26,167.10.

Australian stocks also appeared poised to dip, with the SPI futures contract at 7,014, against the S&P/ASX 200’s last close at 7,051.20.

China is set to release its inflation data on Wednesday, with the consumer price index and producer price index for April both set to be out at 9:30 a.m. HK/SIN. The data releases come as the mainland continues to battle its worst Covid outbreak since the initial phase of the pandemic in early 2020.

The U.S. April consumer price index is also set to be released Wednesday stateside, and is expected to come in slightly below March’s 8.5% which could signal that inflation has reached a peak.

“The US CPI for April is today’s, indeed the week’s, highlight,” Joseph Capurso, head of international economics at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, wrote in a note.

“The consensus of US economists expect headline inflation to decelerate significantly from 1.2%/mth in March to only 0.2%/mth in April because retail petrol prices have stabilised. But core inflation is expected to step up slightly from 0.3%/mth in March to 0.4%/mth in April,” Capurso said.

Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 climbed about 0.25% to 4,001.05 while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.98% to 11,737.67. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged, falling 84.96 points — or 0.26% — to 32,160.74.

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 103.92 — above levels below 103.8 seen earlier in the week.

The Japanese yen traded at 130.34 per dollar, stronger as compared with levels above 130.5 seen against the greenback earlier this week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.6937 as it struggles for a bounce after declining from above $0.70 earlier in the week.

SINGAPORE — Shares in Chinese tech firms mostly rose in mixed Asia-Pacific trading on Monday, with oil prices falling more than 3%.

The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong advanced 1.05%.

Shares of Meituan soared 10.89% while Tencent climbed 2.86%, as of the final hour of trading in Hong Kong on Monday.

Meituan on Friday posted better-than-expected revenue for the last three months of 2021. The company’s revenue for the fourth quarter came in at 49.52 billion yuan ($7.78 billion), above mean analyst expectations for a 49.2 billion yuan print, according to data from Refinitiv Eikon.

The Hang Seng Tech index remained in positive territory, rising 2.13%. Some Chinese tech stocks, however, slipped: Baidu edged 0.63% lower while JD.com dropped 3.06%.

“Even if you look now, where we see very significant and sharp falls so that valuations now are at much more reasonable levels, I think it’s still quite difficult for investors … to really build the courage to go back in at these levels,” Mark Konyn, group chief investment officer at AIA, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Monday.

The broader Asia-Pacific markets struggled for direction on Monday.

Mainland China’s Shanghai composite gained 0.07% to close at 3,214.50 while the Shenzhen component shed 1.017% to 11,949.94.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 closed fractionally higher at 7,412.40. Singapore’s Straits Times index also climbed 0.38% in afternoon trade.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific outside Japan traded 0.11% lower.

Oil prices declined in the afternoon of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures down 3.52% to $116.40 per barrel. U.S. crude futures slipped 3.97% to $109.38 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 99.2 following a recent climb from below 98.7.

The Japanese yen traded at 123.61 per dollar, weaker than levels below 120 seen against the greenback last week. The Australian dollar was at $0.7512, having risen from below $0.74 last week.

Correction: This article was updated to accurately reflect the moves of the Japanese yen during Asia trading hours on Monday.