Singaporean Firms Shine Among Hong Kong IPOs

24 Oct 2019, 08:16 PM IST

(Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong’s small-cap listings are experiencing outsized gains on their debuts, and none more so than Singaporean companies.

Four of them have gone public in Hong Kong in the second half of this year, opening 55% higher than their offer price on average and ending their first day up 58%, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with a 25% opening jump and 21% first-day rise for non-Singaporean firms.

The contrast is even starker when looking at the performance in the first half of the year. Five Singapore-based companies went public in Hong Kong, with an average opening gain of 5.7% and closing advance of 5.4% on their first day, the data show.

One of the Singaporean firms, Snack Empire Holdings Ltd., surged as much as 188% before finishing 6.2% below its offer price on Wednesday, underscoring the speculative trading happening among small Hong Kong IPOs. Meanwhile, Optima Automobile Group Holdings Ltd. almost doubled on its debut earlier this month and is now trading a whopping 600% above its offer price.

Hong Kong is experiencing a revival of deal flow despite ongoing anti-government protests, with frenzied trading in small caps and good performance in larger listings. IPOs of up to $100 million have risen an average 28% from their offer price in the second half of the year, compared with a mean 21% gain for all new offerings, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

UPCOMING LISTINGS:

Chongqing Rural Commercial Bank
- Size $1.5b
- Shanghai stock exchange
- Took orders Oct. 14; listing date TBA
- CICC, China Securities
ESR Cayman Ltd.
- Hong Kong stock exchange
- Size up to $1.45b
- 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
- Size up to $249m
- Pricing Oct. 25; listing Nov. 12
- Credit Suisse
Ascentage Pharma Group International
- Hong Kong stock exchange
- Size $53m
- Listing Oct. 28
- BAML, Citi
JS Global Lifestyle Co.
- Hong Kong stock exchange
- Size up to $464m
- Pricing Oct. 25; listing Oct. 31
- Credit Suisse, ICBC International, Morgan Stanley
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
- Pricing Oct. 24; listing Oct. 31
- BNP, CICC
China Feihe
- Hong Kong stock exchange
- Size about $1b
- JPMorgan, CMS, CCB International

More ECM situations we are following:

China is relaxing its grip on the convertible bond market after a frenzy earlier this year forced its regulator to take action.
Fangdd Network Group has launched its IPO with a price range of $13 to $15 per ADS.
The retail portion of CMGE Technology’s Hong Kong IPO is 185 times oversubscribed based on HK$24.3b of margin loans provided to retail investors, Hong Kong Economic Times reported, citing data from 10 brokerage firms.