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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, 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 experts show.