Gaming firm Razer surges 42% on Hong Kong debut

Bloomberg

Razer Inc. climbed 18 percent in its Hong Kong coming-out party, as the maker of gaming laptops and accessories rode red-hot demand for first-time technology share sales this year.
The San Francisco and Singapore-based company closed at HK$4.58 on Monday, a first-day performance bested only by e-books publisher China Literature and Wuxi Biologics among Hong Kong initial public offerings of more than $500 million this year. Razer, whose green triple-headed serpent logo graces mice, headsets and notebooks for gaming enthusiasts, debuted just days after Tencent Holdings Ltd.-backed China Literature Ltd. soared 86 percent on debut.
Razer, backed by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund and Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, raised HK$4.1 billion ($530 million) and will use part of those proceeds to expand into smartphones, with a $699.99 Android device designed specifically
for gameplay.
Chief Executive Officer Tan Min-Liang, a gamer himself who owns about 42 percent of the company with his family, is set to become a billionaire following the public offering, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
“One element supportive to the Razer share price is favourable sentiment towards IPOs
these days,” said Ke Yan, an
independent analyst who contributes to research aggregator Smartkarma. “Valuation aside, Razer has a line up of heavyweight investors and apparently Hong Kong investors buy the Li Ka-shing story.”
Razer had soared to as much as HK$5.49 on Monday, a 42 percent gain. Its key backers include Singapore’s GIC and Li’s Horizons Ventures. Other investors include Chinese developer Kingkey Enterprise Holdings Ltd., IDG-Accel and Intel Capital.
Credit Suisse Group AG and UBS Group AG were joint sponsors of the offering.