Editorial | Hong Kong remains braced for an IPOs windfall despite Trump factor
The city’s stock exchange aims to regain its global top spot for offerings as investors return to Chinese equities
Hong Kong’s market for initial public offerings is roaring back.
After a period in the doldrums, the city has climbed to become the world’s fourth-biggest IPO market, after America’s Nasdaq, the New York Stock Exchange and Tokyo Stock Exchange. Now is the time for Hong Kong to regain its throne.
A total of US$2.3 billion was raised with 15 companies joining the main board of the city’s bourse in the first three months of this year, the best quarterly performance since the second quarter of 2021 and 3.8 times the US$612.7 million raised from the same period last year.
For much of the 2010s, Hong Kong consistently claimed the global top spot in IPOs. But the market has struggled in recent years.
However, global investment trends have again switched in favour of Chinese equities. Beijing has been encouraging mainland companies to take advantage of the city’s financial expertise to raise capital and broaden their funding sources.
Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po recently said local IPO fundraising could jump by as much as 80 per cent from last year.
It helps that the city’s regulators have been streamlining the approval process just when market sentiment is turning from the United States back to China.