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For the last few years, a number of American venture capitalists have been visiting China to study how to break into the markets of that emerging giant. But one has spent time there studying exits — not from China, but from his start-ups back in the United States.

Already, there are a small but growing number of venture-capital-backed companies based overseas that have gone public in the nations where they have operations. Much rarer are examples of American-based start-ups that have sold shares on the foreign markets.

But a majority of venture capitalists said they thought the rarity if such listings was destined to change — and soon.

In a report published Monday, the National Venture Capital Association found that 57 percent of the 200 investors surveyed expected a growing propensity in the industry to take American companies public in overseas markets in 2007.

The chief reason for interest: U.S. markets have not exactly been friendly places of late for venture capitalists to resell their interests in start-ups. In 2005, 56 venture-backed companies went public in the United States, down from 93 in 2004 and a high of 273 in 1996. (About 37 venture-backed companies had gone public as of the end of September this year.)

Venture capitalists have made a whipping boy of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the 2002 corporate accountability law that they say has markedly raised the cost of domestic public offerings. Talk by venture capitalists of taking companies public overseas could include some hot air, part of the industry’s effort to persuade American regulators of the seriousness of their frustration.

iht: U.S. venture capitalists look to China to take companies public

Hong Kong surged past New York this year and became the world’s second most popular place _ after London _ for companies to float new stock listings.

The city’s amazing success was due to several factors, analysts say. Being next door to mainland China’s booming economy was a huge help. Tough new U.S. accounting rules have discouraged many companies from listing in America.

Hong Kong’s big advantage now is that it has a solid legal and financial system that can handle big initial public offerings, or IPOs. Shanghai isn’t close to being able to match this city, and that’s why a parade of China’s biggest banks decided to launch record-breaking IPOs in Hong Kong this year.

One of them was the world’s biggest ever: the $21.9 billion offering in October by Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, the mainland’s largest lender.

With two weeks left in the year, Hong Kong has raked in HK$307.7 billion, or US$39.57 billion, in IPOs _ nearly twice as much as the HK$165.7 billion raised last year, according to Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd., the listed firm that operates the stock exchange.

London was the world leader for IPO equity raised, with $48.92 billion raised, according to the World Federation of Exchanges. Hong Kong was second and the New York Stock Exchange lagged back in third with $33.61 billion, according to the most recent WFE figures, which included the January-November period.

That may be partly because some American companies are holding back from listing in the U.S. due to the strict rules under the Sarbanes-Oxley anti-fraud law, opting instead to stay private.

Washingtonpost.com: Hong Kong Passes NYC in Attracting IPOs