Hong Kong's sixfold jump in share sales drives boom year in Asia

Business Times

12 hours ago

[HONG KONG] Hong Kong's having a banner year as it marches towards becoming the second-largest market globally for share sales for the first time since 2012.
Proceeds from listings and additional share sales in the Asian financial hub in the first half have reached about US$33 billion, poised for a sixfold jump from a year ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Offerings from electric carmakers BYD and Xiaomi raised the most, followed by Contemporary Amperex Technology Co (CATL), which had the world's biggest new listing this year.
Investors have brushed aside tariffs and geopolitical concerns as deals flooded in Hong Kong – including three of the four biggest stock offerings in the world in 2025. Equity strategists remain upbeat about local stocks after the Hang Seng became one of the world's best-performing indexes this year.
And with the throng of companies lining up with billion-dollar offerings, it's shaping up to be a good year for investment bankers in the city.
'We're seeing a lot more comfort from global investors around the global and regional macro picture, which is leading them to reassess and increase their exposure to the region including to Hong Kong and mainland China,' said Sunil Dhupelia, co-head of Asia Pacific ECM at JPMorgan Chase. 'Assuming that markets remain stable, it's likely to be very busy in the second half of the year.'
Chinese companies that already have shares trading in Shenzhen or Shanghai have been flocking to Hong Kong for additional listings. Those so-called A-H deals accounted for about three-quarters of Hong Kong's total proceeds of US$13.4 billion from first-time share sales in 2025, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
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The biggest one was the US$5.2 billion offering by battery-giant CATL, which forged ahead with its Hong Kong listing in May despite being caught up in US-China tensions. The high-profile deal's success shows industry leaders are still able to find global buyers even in an unfavorable environment.
Hong Kong listing proceeds are poised to double to a four-year high of more than US$22 billion, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. Big deals to look forward to later this year include those of electric carmaker Seres Group, heavy-machinery maker Sany Heavy Industry and pig breeder Muyuan Foods.
Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary, is so fired up about the surge in business that it's parading the iconic gong used to introduce new listings in an unprecedented two-week public tour via a 'gongmobile'.
Hong Kong is leading share sales overall in all of Asia-Pacific, where first-half proceeds have climbed almost 30 per cent to about US$100 billion in 2025, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
In India, which led the region in share sales last year, total proceeds stand at about US$20 billion, on track for a drop of more than 20 per cent in the first half, after a stock-market rout led to a slow start.
Despite underperforming regional peers, the benchmark Nifty 50 Index has rallied as of late and is on track to post its best quarterly gain in more than a year. That optimism is spilling over to deals, with HDB Financial Services' US$1.5 billion initial public offering (IPO), and Tata Capital's soon-to-come US$2 billion IPO.
Elsewhere, the US$4 billion chunk of Japan Post Bank Co sold by its parent and JX Advanced Metals' IPO helped share sale proceeds in Japan rise to US$13.7 billion, on course for a 30 per cent increase, though the pace of deals slowed during the second quarter, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
In South Korea, the recent presidential election ended of months of leadership vacuum, revitalising the Kospi and making it one of the region's best-performing indexes. That's encouraging more companies to pursue listings, such as Baby Shark-creator Pinkfong, the company behind the most watched YouTube video of all time.
While geopolitical tensions are bound to continue to complicate decisions for corporate issuers and investors for months to come, Asia is on track to cap a great year of deals.
'We don't expect issuance activity to be slowing,' said Rob Chan, head of Asia ECM syndicate at Citigroup. 'In fact, despite all the uncertainties driven by tariffs and geopolitical tensions in recent months, issuance activity has been very strong.'
Going forward, expect to see deals in Hong Kong from companies that mainly rely on Chinese domestic consumption because they are best shielded from tariff effects and geopolitics, according to Christine Xu, the partner in charge of Chinese ECM transactions at the Linklaters law firm.
'Enough water has gone under the bridge around the tariffs, and the market has taken that in its stride,' said JPMorgan's Dhupelia. 'Looking at the rest of the year, the ongoing complex global geopolitical situation is the clear risk that could change the direction of markets.' BLOOMBERG