Richard Li's FWD Group falls in Hong Kong debut after HK$3.5 billion IPO
The insurer's stock fell as much as 2.5 per cent on Monday (Jul 7) after selling 91.3 million shares at HK$38 apiece. The shares slipped in grey-market trading on Jul 4. The IPO values the company at more than US$6 billion, according to deal terms seen by Bloomberg. Mubadala Capital and Japan's T&D Holdings were its cornerstone investors, according to a filing.
The debut comes after the tycoon, son of famed Hong Kong businessman Li Ka-shing, tried to take the company public in New York in 2021, which was abandoned after regulatory scrutiny. Subsequent efforts to list at home in Hong Kong were stalled as the city's IPO entered a prolonged slump.
Now, with Hong Kong's equity markets rebounding, Li is seizing a more favourable window to raise capital for the crown jewel of his business empire. Investors' sentiment has been buoyed by a wave of multibillion-dollar deals, with IPOs and follow-on offerings raising US$37.4 billion so far in 2025 – the highest since the record-breaking year of 2021 and a sharp jump from US$5.1 billion during the same period last year.
The city's stock benchmark, the Hang Seng Index, has risen about 20 per cent for the year. Insurers have been particularly hot lately, with shares of AIA Group and Prudential each rising at least 35 per cent since their April lows.
Richard Li, who founded the company in 2013, owns a 66.5 per cent stake in FWD through various corporate entities. His stake in FWD accounts for two-thirds of his US$6.1 billion net worth at the IPO price, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The insurer plans to use the proceeds to reduce debt, support growth and enhance its digital capabilities. BLOOMBERG
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Times
an hour ago
- Business Times
Stocks to watch: OCBC, SGX, Centurion, Sats, Frasers Property, Frasers Hospitality Trust
[SINGAPORE] THE following companies saw new developments that may affect trading of their securities on Monday (Jul 14): OCBC : The lender on Friday announced the retirement of its incumbent chief executive officer Helen Wong, who will step down on Dec 31, 2025, for family reasons. The current head of global wholesale banking Tan Teck Long, who will succeed Wong on Jan 1, 2026. Tan will immediately assume the additional role of deputy CEO. Wong will remain chairman of OCBC China and director of OCBC Hong Kong after stepping away from the helm. Shares of OCBC closed 0.9 per cent or S$0.15 higher at S$16.89 on Friday, before the announcement. Singapore Exchange (SGX) : The manager of NTT DC Reit (real estate investment trust) said the public tranche of its Singapore initial public offer was about 9.8 times oversubscribed. Based on the 30 million units available to the public for subscription, there were 14,166 valid applications for an aggregate of 294.8 million units. Shares of SGX ended on Friday 1 per cent or S$0.16 lower at S$15.46. Sats : Its CEO Kerry Mok was paid more than S$3.1 million in total remuneration for FY2025 ended March, a 30.5 per cent pay raise from the S$2.4 million in FY2024. Mok received S$1 million in salary, S$1.2 million in bonuses, around S$862,500 worth of Sats shares and S$74,000 in benefits. This comes as the group's earnings for FY2025 soared more than four times to S$243.8 million from the year-ago period. Sats shares closed 0.3 per cent or S$0.01 lower at S$3.12 on Friday. Frasers Property , Frasers Hospitality Trust (FHT) : The manager said on Friday that it received in-principle approval from the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited (SGX-ST) to delist and remove FHT from the official list of SGX-ST. The scheme by FHT's sponsor Frasers Property to privatise the stapled group at S$0.71 per stapled security will require approval from stapled securityholders of FHT, the manager added. Shares of Frasers Property ended on Friday unchanged at S$0.89. Stapled securities of FHT ended on Friday flat at S$0.70. Aims Apac Rei t: Aims Financial Group raised its stake in Aims Apac Reit to nearly 18.7 per cent, after acquiring an additional 7 per cent stake of over 57 million units in the trust, its manager said on Monday. The units were acquired from substantial unitholder, ESR HK Management, which is part of ESR Group. Units in Aims Apac Reit ended on Friday 0.8 per cent or S$0.01 higher at S$1.33, before the news. Creative Technology : The group warned that revenue for its second half ended June would likely be below its target, at US$30 million. This comes as its topline was 'negatively impacted' by macroeconomic uncertainty and weakening consumer sentiment due to tariffs and trade tensions, which have adversely hit the business environment for many of its products, the group said on Friday. Creative's shares rose S$0.005, or 0.6 per cent to close at S$0.83 on Friday. Trading halt: Property management company Centurion Corp requested a trading halt on Monday morning, pending the release of an announcement. Its shares closed flat on Friday at S$1.76.
Business Times
an hour ago
- Business Times
China's growth seen outpacing target, easing stimulus pressure
[BEIJING] China's economy likely expanded just above the government's full-year growth target in the second quarter, easing pressure on Beijing to roll out additional stimulus in the near term. Official figures due on Tuesday (Jul 15) are expected to show gross domestic product rose 5.1 per cent year on year in the quarter ended June, according to a Bloomberg survey. While slower than the first quarter, it would still put first-half growth at 5.3 per cent, comfortably above Beijing's annual target of around 5 per cent, the survey shows. The economy got a boost from strong exports, helped by a trade truce with the US in mid-May that lowered tariffs on Chinese goods to around 55 per cent from a peak of 145 per cent, as well as ongoing fiscal support aimed at shoring up domestic demand. That momentum has many economists expecting Beijing to hold off on further stimulus, at least for now, to preserve policy space in case tensions with Washington flare up again once the temporary deal expires in mid-August. 'We see limited urgency for policymakers to strike the policy put soon,' Citigroup economists including Xiangrong Yu wrote in a note on Thursday. An upcoming July meeting of the Communist Party's Politburo, which includes 24 of the country's most senior officials led by President Xi Jinping, could 'further confirm a wait-and-see policy mode, while keeping the door open for incremental small-scale support', the Citi economists said. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) has indicated a less dovish stance on easing. In a statement after its quarterly monetary policy committee meeting last month, the central bank dropped its earlier pledge to cut rates and inject long-term liquidity in a timely manner, saying instead it would 'calibrate the intensity and pace of policy implementation' with flexibility. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up That said, the boost from front-loading of exports and earlier fiscal support may fade in the second half, potentially increasing the need for more policy action later this year. Economists from Citi and Nomura Holdings expect a 10-basis-point cut to policy rate and a 50-basis-point reduction in banks' reserve requirement ratios by year-end. Here's a preview of other key economic indicators set for release by the National Bureau of Statistics at 10 am Beijing time on Tuesday. Consumption Retail sales growth is expected to have slowed to 5.2 per cent in June year on year from 6.4 per cent in May, bringing first-half expansion to around 5 per cent. Sales might have taken a hit in June as some provinces suspended government subsidies for consumer purchases of items such as smartphones, home appliances and cars. The early launch of mid-year shopping festival in mid-May, weeks earlier than last year, could have pulled spending forward, weighing on last month's figures. China earmarked 300 billion yuan (S$54 billion) from the issuance of ultra-long special sovereign bonds to fund consumer subsidies this year. Officials said more than half the funds were deployed in the first half, with the remainder to be allocated in July and October. Weekly spending plans will be made with an aim to keep subsidies available to consumers to year-end. The threat of higher US tariffs on Chinese goods in the coming months has prompted some economists to urge Beijing to roll out more consumer-focused support to cushion the blow to growth. Academics including PBOC adviser Huang Yiping said authorities should add as much as 1.5 trillion yuan in new stimulus over 12 months to help offset the potential impact of US levies. The government is planning to offer nationwide childcare subsidies, which is also part of broader efforts to boost birth rates, Bloomberg previously reported. Industry, anti-involution Industrial production probably rose 5.6 per cent in June, the slowest pace since November, according to the survey. Things could improve in the coming months after new orders returned to growth last month following two straight months of contraction, thanks to the tariff truce. Still, humming production lines do not always translate into stronger earnings. Excess capacity continues to drive a supply glut, weighing on prices. Profits at China's industrial firms fell 1.1 per cent in the first five months despite rising output, underscoring deflationary pressures and the need to tackle overcapacity. At a high-level meeting earlier this month, leaders vowed to curb 'involution', or cutthroat competition among firms, raising hopes that Beijing is stepping up efforts to end the years-long price wars dragging on growth. 'The renewed focus on anti-involution is a step in the right direction,' Morgan Stanley economists including Robin Xing wrote in a Thursday report. They cautioned that progress would likely be slower than a similar campaign a decade ago, given the 'fundamentally more difficult' industrial and macroeconomic backdrop. The bank sees deflation persisting into next year. Investment Fixed-asset investment is expected to have risen 3.6 per cent year on year in the first six months, slightly weaker than the pace over January to May. The property market contraction likely continued, with real estate investment estimated to have tumbled 10.9 per cent, marking a new low since the start of the pandemic. Speculation is growing that a high-level government meeting could be held this week to shore up the struggling property sector, fuelling a rally in Chinese developer stocks. While China's growth may have held up in the first half, Nomura economists including Lu Ting warned of a looming 'demand cliff' over the rest of the year, driven by factors such as the reining in of industrial overcapacity, weaker export momentum and continued real estate troubles. 'Beijing needs to take bolder actions to clean up the mess in the property sector, support consumption in a more sustainable way by reforming the pension system, fix the fiscal system to better protect business owners and improve its relationships with other economies,' they wrote in a recent note. BLOOMBERG
Business Times
2 hours ago
- Business Times
Wealth funds warm to active management – and China – to weather volatility: report
[LONDON] The world's sovereign wealth funds are turning to active fund management and investments in China, while central banks are diversifying reserves to weather a volatile global environment, an Invesco survey of sovereign funds and central banks managing US$27 trillion in assets showed. Still, the US dollar reigns supreme, with the bulk of central banks saying it would take two decades to dethrone it, if ever, as the top reserve currency despite growing concerns. 'Institutions with greater than US$100 billion, so the pretty large institutions, those are the ones that were most interested in moving more to active management,' said Rod Ringrow, Invesco's head of official institutions. Whereas funds liked passive management in predictable market conditions, predictable was 'no longer the case', he added. 'I think that frames the whole approach... in this move to active management'. On average, wealth funds made returns of 9.4 per cent last year, the joint second-best performance in the survey's history. Nevertheless, market volatility and de-globalisation concerns have spiked, and over the 10-year horizon, big worries centre around climate change and rising sovereign debt levels. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up Over 70 per cent of the 58 central banks polled, for example, now believe rising US debt is negatively impacting the US dollar's long-term outlook. Nevertheless, 78 per cent think it will take more than two decades for a credible alternative to the greenback to emerge. That is a jump from 58 per cent last year while just 11 per cent of central banks now view the euro as gaining ground compared to 20 per cent last year. China Fomo The survey was carried out between January and March, before US President Donald Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariff announcements and at the peak of excitement around DeepSeek AI's emergence in China. Wealth funds are seeing a major resurgence in interest in Chinese assets with nearly 60 per cent intending to increase allocations there in the coming five years, specifically the tech sector. That number jumps to 73 per cent in North America despite the worsening US-Sino tensions, whereas in Europe it sits at just 13 per cent. Wealth funds, the survey said, were now approaching China's innovation-driven sectors with the 'strategic urgency they once directed towards Silicon Valley'. 'There's a little bit of a Fomo,' Ringrow explained, a view that 'I need to be in China now' as it shapes up to be a global leader in semiconductors, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, electric vehicles and renewable energy. Private credit has also emerged as a key focus for funds seeking alternative sources of income and resilience. It is now adopted by 73 per cent of wealth funds, up from 65 per cent last year, and with half actively increasing allocations. 'This represents one of the most decisive trends in sovereign asset allocation,' the report said. There is also growing interest, especially among emerging market wealth funds, in stablecoins – a type of cryptocurrency that is most commonly pegged 1:1 to the US dollar. Almost half of the funds said that stablecoins were the type of digital assets they were inclined to invest in, although that was still behind the likes of bitcoin, where the share was 75 per cent. REUTERS
