Skift Take
Business trumps geopolitical tension: Chinese companies like Atour can bring in more cash to expand back home by listing on the U.S. stock market rather than in China.
Shanghai-based hotel company Atour might be working towards a massive debut on the New York Stock Exchange, but that doesn’t signal immediate plans for American expansion.
Atour, which owns brands like ZHotel and A.T.House and has leveraged China's exploding middle class, plans to raise as much as $300 million as part of plans to go public on the U.S. stock market, CNBC reported this week. Its initial public offering could value the company at as much as $2 billion.
The mid-sized Atour would join Chinese hotel giant Huazhu on the American stock market. While analysts see many reasons for Chinese hotel companies to list in the U.S. over their home country, rapid expansion in the U.S. isn’t one of them.
“China still has plenty of growth opportunities for its domestic hotel companies,” said Nicolas Graf, associate dean at New York Unive
