Chinese tech firms tend to be registered in the Caymans and listed in New York or Hong Kong. Such cosmopolitan status is unpopular with regulators keen to bolster domestic stock trading. Noisy new enthusiasm among tech groups for local listings is evidence of this. The result will be quick gains followed by muddy governance and trapped value.

中国科技公司一般都在开曼群岛注册，在纽约或香港上市。这种世界性身份并不受希望看到国内证券交易活跃的监管部门欢迎。近期一批科技公司闹哄哄地准备回归中国国内上市就是一个例证。回归以后，它们的股价也许会快速上涨，但是紧接着投资者可能遭遇治理结构混乱和价值陷阱(value trap)。

Cheerleaders for bourses such as those in Shenzhen and Shanghai are promoting issuance of Chinese depositary receipts (CDRs). These offer the most obvious way for bullish locals to invest in tech champions such as Alibaba and Tencent. A crackdown on high-yielding wealth management products has forced them to rebalance portfolios. But there is a lack of alternatives.

深圳和上海两地证交所的支持者们正在倡导发行“中国存托凭证”(CDR)。这将为内地的“看涨派”提供投资阿里巴巴(Alibaba)和腾讯(Tencent)等科技巨头的最简单方式。当局打击高收益理财产品迫使他们不得不调整投资组合，但又缺乏其他投资渠道。

The CDRs would thus likely trade at a premium to underlying securities. The analogy, according to Morgan Stanley, are the American depositary receipts of Indian bank HDFC. These trade at a 15 per cent premium to shares with limited availability to keen foreign buyers. Likewise, A shares traded on Chinese exchanges have typically been worth 30 per cent more than H shares in the same groups listed in Hong Kong.

因此CDR的交易价可能会高于相应的基础证券。据摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)表示，印度银行HDFC的“美国存托凭证”(ADR)可以作为类比。由于外国买家兴趣浓厚而供应有限，该凭证比HDFC普通股溢价15%。同样，同一家企业在中国内地交易所挂牌的A股通常比在香港挂牌的H股贵出30%左右。

The first CDRs are expected to emerge this year. The impact will be unpredictable. Companies may issue new shares to cover CDRs sold to Chinese investors, diluting foreign holders. If treasury shares and overseas buybacks feature instead, related foreign securities may be unaffected or rise. Either way, foreign investors should assess how well or badly their limited governance rights compare with those conferred by the CDRs. Capital controls make it unlikely these will be easily interchangeable with US or HK-listed counterparts.

首批CDR预计在今年问世，其影响将不可预测。企业可能会发行新股覆盖卖给内地投资者的CDR，从而稀释境外股东的股权。相反，如果企业选择用库存股票和境外回购股票来发行CDR，其境外股票的股价可能不受影响或上涨。无论企业采用哪种方式，境外投资者都应该评估一下，自己拥有的有限治理权与CDR持有者的治理权相比有哪些优势和劣势。由于资本管制，CDR不太可能与在美国或香港上市的股票轻松互换。

Any onshore valuation premium is likely to push up offshore prices, all the same. The biggest winners could be the banks that pitch a new “convergence trade”. Their clients should remember that a lot of money was lost on similar trades in A and H shares that remained separated by price as well as locale.

不管怎样，一旦在岸估值存在溢价，就可能带动离岸股价上涨。最大的赢家可能是那些推销新的“收敛交易”(convergence trade)的银行。他们的客户应该记住，已经有很多人因为押注A股和H股价格会趋同而亏了血本，到目前为止，A股和H股仍然分处两地也仍然存在价差。