Alibaba mulls raising $20 billion via second listing

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is considering raising $20 billion (15.77 billion pounds) through a second listing in Hong Kong, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing sources.

The e-commerce company is said to be working with financial advisers on the planned offering and is aiming to file a listing application in Hong Kong confidentially as early as the second half of 2019, according to the Bloomberg report. 

Alibaba did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Alibaba raised $25 billion selling shares on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014, after struggling to persuade Hong Kong regulators to approve its proposed governance structure.

A second listing is intended to diversify Alibaba's funding channels and boost liquidity, according to the Bloomberg report.

The move comes as Chinese companies face an increasingly hostile U.S. government, which has put several Chinese tech companies on a blacklist.