Chinese hotpot giant Anjoy Foods eyes Southeast Asia and Europe after Hong Kong listing
Liang Chen, board secretary of the Fujian-based company, told the Post that proceeds from the share sale would bolster its competitiveness in countries like Indonesia and Malaysia, where hotpot has been flourishing. He spoke ahead of the company's Hong Kong bookbuilding, which kicks off on Wednesday.
'Southeast Asia is a fast-growing market where not a single established brand [of frozen food] can be found,' he said. 'We believe it is a place for us to repeat our success after two decades of development in China.'
The company was expected to raise as much as US$600 million by floating 59.5 million shares, which was based on its Shanghai closing price of 76.38 yuan (US$10.64) on Tuesday.
A dual listing would raise Anjoy's international profile and was an opportunity to propel its drive to go global, Liang said. Anjoy was seeking to become the latest mainland company to embrace an influx of international capital into Hong Kong as global investors sought alternatives to US assets.
'The timing is right for us now to list shares in Hong Kong,' Liang said. 'The H-share market is providing Chinese companies like us [with the] best fundraising platform as we expand our business abroad.'
According to market researcher Frost & Sullivan, hotpot catering businesses outside the mainland were projected to reach a market size of US$63.8 billion by 2028, which translated to annualised growth of 9.8 per cent for the five years starting in 2023.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RTHK
4 hours ago
- RTHK
Wang Yi arrives in India to bolster ties
Wang Yi arrives in India to bolster ties Wang Yi will hold talks with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar during his visit to New Delhi. File photo: Reuters China's top diplomat landed in India on Monday, seeking to bolster long-fraught relations in the face of intense pressure and tariffs from the United States. Foreign Minister Wang Yi will hold talks with his counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, and is also expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his three-day visit to New Delhi. Modi, according to Indian media, might also visit China this month. India's foreign ministry said in a social media post that "important engagements of the India-China Special Representatives and on bilateral relations" were scheduled over the next two days. Restarting border trade across their icy and high-altitude Himalayan border is expected to feature high on Wang's agenda. Its resumption would be significant for its symbolism, and follows agreements to return direct flights and issue tourist visas. (AFP)
South China Morning Post
6 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Alibaba, Baidu lead China's AI cloud boom as market surges 55% to US$2.7 billion
Baidu and Alibaba Group Holding led the market for public cloud services supporting artificial intelligence in China last year, as the industry embraced 'disruptive innovations' towards generative and agentic AI, according to consultancy IDC. The mainland AI public cloud market reached 19.6 billion yuan (US$2.7 billion) in 2024, increasing 55 per cent on the back of surging demand for AI training and applications, IDC said on Monday. The top two market players each accounted for roughly 25 per cent of the market, followed by Tencent Holdings and Huawei Technologies, according to a chart that did not provide exact share numbers. Alibaba owns the Post. 'Disruptive innovations' in AI drove the surge in the market, IDC said. Before 2022, demand for AI cloud services came from 'traditional' applications, including optical character recognition, quality inspection and surveillance. Starting in 2023, large language models – the technology underpinning ChatGPT-like chatbots – began to dominate the market. AI services were now evolving into agentic forms in the second half of this year, marking a new era of autonomous, task-oriented AI interactions, the report said. These shifts have prompted growing demand for AI cloud services, which can provide both generative-AI applications and training resources for clients to build their own AI services. Among five segments within AI cloud services, the biggest was computer vision, which rose 34 per cent to 8.1 billion yuan last year, led by Tencent and Baidu, IDC data showed.
South China Morning Post
6 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Marks and Spencer to close Mong Kok branch in Hong Kong after 10 years
Marks and Spencer's Mong Kok branch in Hong Kong will close by the end of the month, after close to 10 years in operation. In a social media post on Monday, the lifestyle and clothing brand announced that its Langham Place store will close on August 24. 'Thank you for your support!' the post said, adding that there would be a 12 per cent discount on food and drink products throughout its final week, starting August 18. Marks and Spencer has a total of 21 locations in Hong Kong, excluding the Mong Kok store, 11 of which are premium grocery store 'food' outlets. The Langham Place branch originally opened in November 2015. Meanwhile, the brand's Foodhall in Central Tower recently completed renovations.
