China’s Star Board Among World’s Top Three IPO Venues
China’s Star Board Among World’s Top Three IPO Venues
(Bloomberg) -- China’s technology focused Star board may be just over a year old, but it already ranks among the world’s top three initial public offering venues.
Companies have raised $19.4 billion through listings on Shanghai’s Star board this year, trailing only the New York Stock Exchange’s $29.7 billion haul and Nasdaq’s $29.4 billion, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Thanks to China’s top chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp.’s $7.5 billion second listing -- the world’s largest this year -- on the neophyte trading board, IPO proceeds raised on the Star market have overtaken Hong Kong, the busiest venue last year.
The sheer scale of activity points to the success of the board, hatched in late 2018 from President Xi Jinping’s plan to liberalize China’s controlled stock market and prevent its homegrown tech champions from listing abroad. The Star platform does away with many of the restrictions -- from limits on the scale of share moves to valuation ceilings -- imposed on mainland China IPOs.
In a sign of its increasing appeal, mobile payment firm Ant Group is planning a dual listing on Star and Hong Kong bourses in which it’s seeking a valuation of more than $200 billion. Ant’s IPO is likely to be one of the world’s biggest in years.
As tensions between the U.S. and China show no signs of easing, having a viable alternative listing venue to New York for China’s tech startups is becoming more important.
Previously, tech heavyweights such as Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd., JD.com Inc. and Baidu Inc. all sold shares in New York. Now, several U.S.-listed Chinese firms are considering or have completed dual listings in Hong Kong, broadening their investor base and hedging against the risk of being delisted in New York. Those offerings have helped push the amount raised through first-time share sales in Hong Kong to $18.7 billion, still below Shanghai’s Star market.
UPCOMING LISTINGS:
- Hangzhou Tigermed Consulting Co.
- Hong Kong stock exchange
- Size $1.38b
- Listing Aug. 7
- BofA, Haitong, CLSA, CICC
- KE Holdings Inc.
- New York Stock Exchange
- Size about $2b
- Filed July 24
- Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, China Renaissance, JP Morgan
- Gland Pharma Ltd.
- India stock exchanges
- Filed July 10
- Citi, Haitong, Nomura, Kotak
- Mindspace REIT
- India stock exchanges
- Size up to $598m
- Books were open July 27-29, listing around Aug. 12
- Morgan Stanley, BofA, Axis Capital, Citi, JM Financial, Kotak Mahindra, CLSA, Nomura, UBS, Ambit Capital, HDFC Bank, IDFC Bank, ICICI Securities
- AREIT
- Philippines stock exchange
- Raised $250m
- Trading Aug. 13
- BPI Capital, UBS
More ECM transactions we are following:
- Chinese clinical research service provider Hangzhou Tigermed Consulting Co. raised $1.38 billion after pricing its Hong Kong listing at HK$100 a share, the top of an indicative range, according to terms seen by Bloomberg
- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bank of America Corp. were left off Ant Group’s upcoming stock sale in Hong Kong because of their past work with rivals of its affiliate Alibaba, according to people familiar with the matter
- Bandhan Bank Ltd.’s main shareholder Bandhan Financial Holdings raised 106 billion rupees ($1.4 billion) selling shares at 313.1 rupees, according to deal teams seen by Bloomberg News
See also:
- Asia ECM Weekly Agenda
- IPO data
- U.S. ECM Watch
- EU ECM Watch
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