Companies are raising money in Asian-Pacific equity markets at the fastest pace since the global financial crisis.
Just 15 days into the new year, initial public offerings (IPOs) have reached US$5.9 billion, the most since 2007 for the period, data compiled by Bloomberg showed.
Chinese companies are leading the fundraising, accounting for 97 percent of the proceeds raised, the data showed.
The Chinese dominance is no surprise with Beijing-Shanghai High Speed Railway Co (京滬高鐵) clinching the biggest deal in Asia this year, raising US$4.3 billion in China.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s (阿里巴巴) second listing in Hong Kong last year has set the stage for other Chinese companies that are considering doing the same, which bodes well for Asia-Pacific IPO volume this year.
The e-commerce giant’s Hong Kong shares have surged about 25 percent since its listing in November last year.
Trip.com Group Ltd (攜程) and Netease Inc (網易), both of which are trading on the NASDAQ, are said to be in preliminary discussions with the exchange for a potential second listing in Hong Kong
A secondary listing is seen as a hedge by Chinese companies listed in the US, as the administration of US President Donald Trump is looking at various ways to curb their access to US funding.
There are 196 Chinese companies listed on major US exchanges with a combined market value US$1.2 trillion, Bloomberg’s data showed.
Among those firms, BeiGene Ltd (百濟神州) and Alibaba are the only two with a second listing in Hong Kong.
In other IPO news, UK drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline PLC has not made plans to pursue an IPO of the consumer-health company it set up with Pfizer Inc last year, a top executive said on Wednesday, rowing back remarks made by Pfizer’s chief executive on Tuesday
The comments could expose a lack of communication between the two partners.
Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla on Tuesday said that he expected Glaxo to pursue an IPO in three to four years.
“This is the time that we will be able to exit from this partnership, and I’m sure that this business will have a fantastic IPO,” Bourla said at the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco.
However, Glaxo chief strategy officer David Redfern said in an interview at the meeting on Wednesday that an IPO is not the only option.
Glaxo said at the time of the deal that it would separate and list the company within three to five years.
“Actually, we haven’t decided anything,” Redfern said. “When we announced the deal, we said we expect it to separate within three years, but actually up to five years. And it’s entirely our decision.”
Glaxo, the majority owner, and Pfizer, which has about a third of the business, are looking to focus on drug development.
The demise of the coal industry left the US’ Appalachian region in tatters, with lost jobs, spoiled water and countless kilometers of abandoned underground mines. Now entrepreneurs are eyeing the rural region with ambitious visions to rebuild its economy by converting old mines into solar power systems and data centers that could help fuel the increasing power demands of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. One such project is underway by a non-profit team calling itself Energy DELTA (Discovery, Education, Learning and Technology Accelerator) Lab, which is looking to develop energy sources on about 26,305 hectares of old coal land in
Taiwan’s exports soared 56 percent year-on-year to an all-time high of US$64.05 billion last month, propelled by surging global demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing and cloud service infrastructure, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) called the figure an unexpected upside surprise, citing a wave of technology orders from overseas customers alongside the usual year-end shopping season for technology products. Growth is likely to remain strong this month, she said, projecting a 40 percent to 45 percent expansion on an annual basis. The outperformance could prompt the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and
Netflix on Friday faced fierce criticism over its blockbuster deal to acquire Warner Bros Discovery. The streaming giant is already viewed as a pariah in some Hollywood circles, largely due to its reluctance to release content in theaters and its disruption of traditional industry practices. As Netflix emerged as the likely winning bidder for Warner Bros — the studio behind Casablanca, the Harry Potter movies and Friends — Hollywood’s elite launched an aggressive campaign against the acquisition. Titanic director James Cameron called the buyout a “disaster,” while a group of prominent producers are lobbying US Congress to oppose the deal,
Two Chinese chipmakers are attracting strong retail investor demand, buoyed by industry peer Moore Threads Technology Co’s (摩爾線程) stellar debut. The retail portion of MetaX Integrated Circuits (Shanghai) Co’s (上海沐曦) upcoming initial public offering (IPO) was 2,986 times oversubscribed on Friday, according to a filing. Meanwhile, Beijing Onmicro Electronics Co (北京昂瑞微), which makes radio frequency chips, was 2,899 times oversubscribed on Friday, its filing showed. The bids coincided with Moore Threads’ trading debut, which surged 425 percent on Friday after raising 8 billion yuan (US$1.13 billion) on bets that the company could emerge as a viable local competitor to Nvidia
RSS