News that a new Chinese solar stock, Jetion Holdings, is planning an IPO on AIM made me think about the routes recent Chinese alternative energy floatations have been taking.

It does appear that AIM is popular for those who will capitalize at less than USD 500 m - in the case of Jetion Holdings, their valuation would be in the region of USD 220 m. Meanwhile, Yingli Green Energy, who today capitalise at USD 1.5 billion, took the American Depository Recept route.

And Suntech Power Holdings, AEI's largest stock by market cap. has a full listing on the NYSE, capitalises at over USD 5 billion.

I think it's all about costs and the smaller you are, the less able you are to absorb them. So I think it's fair to say that you could rank these exchanges - on costs alone - like this;

1. Full listing - NYSE/ Nasdaq - most expensive
2. ADR IPO - on NYSE / Nasdaq - less expensive
3. AIM IPO - least expensive

Ok, ok, I haven't included some of the other European or Canadian markets - but it does generally appear that if you're a Chinese company looking to IPO, it's London or New York.