Chinese Companies Are Rushing to List on Wall Street

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. and China may be locked in a prolonged trade war but that’s not stopping Chinese companies from trying to list on Wall Street.

Nine Chinese companies have filed for initial public offerings in the U.S. this month, including three overnight, making October the busiest of the year so far in terms of filings, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Canaan Inc., the world’s second-largest maker of Bitcoin mining machines, podcast and radio streaming app creator Guangzhou Lizhi Network Technology Co., and the operator of the Chinese co-living platform Danke Apartment, Phoenix Tree Holdings Ltd., all filed overnight. Meanwhile Fangdd Network Group and apartment rental business Q&K International Group are both taking investor orders this week.

The flurry of activity comes even as the U.S. threatens to delist Chinese companies from American exchanges and amid the blacklisting of Chinese technology companies.

In addition, the performance of Chinese IPOs in the U.S. has been dismal. All but four of the 25 companies that have completed U.S. listings this year are underwater. The average return is a 24% slump from their offer prices and the companies have raised 63% less than in the same period last year, the data show. Three companies that made their debuts last Friday, including NetEase Inc.’s education arm Youdao Inc., are now down by an average 24%.

Still, two of the three largest deals this year have performed well. Luckin Coffee Inc. and GSX Techedu Inc., which raised $853 million between them, have respectively risen 20% and 44% from their offer prices.

Applications from Chinese companies to list in Hong Kong have also picked up this month to the most since June, with 13 filing for IPOs in what may signal an acceleration of deal activity after a summer drought.

UPCOMING LISTINGS:

• Chongqing Rural Commercial Bank
  • Size $1.5b
  • Shanghai stock exchange
  • Listing Oct. 29
  • CICC, China Securities
• ESR Cayman Ltd.
  • Hong Kong stock exchange
  • Size $1.6b
  • Listing Nov. 1
  • CLSA, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley
• Hanwha Systems
  • Korea exchange
  • Size up to $390m
  • Pricing Oct. 31; listing Nov. 14
  • Citi, Korea Investment & Securities, NH Investment
• S Hotels and Resorts
  • Thailand exchange
  • Price 5.2 baht per share
  • Listing Nov. 12
  • Credit Suisse
• Bangkok Commercial Asset Management
  • Thailand stock exchange
  • Size at least $700m
  • Listing date TBA
  • Trinity Securities, Kasikorn Securities
• Lotte REIT
  • Korea stock exchange
  • Size $353m
  • Listing date Oct. 30
  • HSBC, Korea Investment & Securities, Nomura
• CMGE Technology Group
  • Hong Kong exchange
  • Size up to $166m
  • Listing Oct. 31
  • BNP, CICC
• Sinic Holdings (Group) Co.
  • Hong Kong stock exchange
  • Up tp $287 million
  • Pricing Nov. 8, listing Nov. 15
  • ABC International, Huatai Financial
• China Feihe
  • Hong Kong stock exchange
  • Size up to $1.1b
  • Listing expected Nov. 13
  • JPMorgan, CMS, CCB International

More ECM situations we are following:

• TikTok owner ByteDance Inc. is focused on hiring staff to beef up its international operations before considering an initial public offering in the U.S. or Hong Kong over the longer term, according to people familiar with the matter.
• Yalla Technology FZ-LLC, which develops a voice-chat app that focuses on the Middle East market, is planning an initial public offering in the U.S., people familiar with the matter said.
• The institutional order book for China Feihe Ltd.’s Hong Kong initial public offering was covered on the day it launched, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
• Investors seized the chance to take part in China’s largest convertible bond sale, showing just how coveted the equity-like securities have become.
• Chinese property developer Sinic Holdings (Group) Co. started taking investor orders for its proposed Hong Kong initial public offering that could raise as much as $287 million, according to terms of the deal obtained by Bloomberg.
• Zheng He Capital offers 22.5m shares of Ping An Healthcare & Technology Co., known as Ping An Good Doctor, at HK$55.30 to HK$56.85 apiece, according to terms for the deal obtained by Bloomberg.

SEE ALSO:

• Asia ECM Weekly Agenda
• IPO data
• U.S. ECM Watch
• EU ECM Watch
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--With assistance from Zhen Hao Toh.

To contact the reporter on this story: Julia Fioretti in Hong Kong at jfioretti4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Teo Chian Wei at cwteo@bloomberg.net, Margo Towie

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.