Postal Savings Bank of China Co (中國郵政儲蓄銀行) yesterday made a low-key debut on the Hong Kong bourse, despite notching up the world’s biggest initial public offering (IPO) in two years.
China’s fifth-biggest lender raked in a colossal US$7.4 billion in the flotation, with a report in Chinese-language financial news portal Caixin Media Company Ltd (財新傳媒) saying that a fund linked to investment guru George Soros was among the initial investors.
However, the firm’s first day of trading saw it post a tepid rise in the morning session, with analysts saying the muted response was expected, due to the glut of options in Chinese banking.
“We have already got a lot of Chinese banks in the market. The ones [already] publicly traded are cheaper,” said Jackson Wong (黃志陽), associate director of Hong Kong-based Simsen International Financial Group (天行國際金融集團).
He said there was a “limited upside” for newly listed Chinese banks because of this.
Selling pressure would also be low, as investors tended to hold Chinese bank shares long term, he added.
Shares in the company ended yesterday’s trading at HK$4.77, up from its HK$4.76 listing price, while the wider Hang Seng Index rose 0.2 percent.
Bloomberg said that Postal Savings Bank’s first-morning performance was in line with other financial IPOs in Hong Kong since 2010.
Postal Savings Bank chairman Li Guohua (李國華) described the launch as “successful” and an “important milestone” for the company.
“The successful public listing ... clearly shows the intrinsic values of Postal Savings Bank are broadly endorsed by investors,” he said at the stock’s launch ceremony in Hong Kong’s Central financial district.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
Taiwan has enough crude oil reserves for more than 100 days and sufficient natural gas reserves for more than 11 days, both above the regulatory safety requirement, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, adding that the government would prioritize domestic price stability as conflicts in the Middle East continue. Overall, energy supply for this month is secure, and the government is continuing efforts to ensure sufficient supply for next month, Kung told reporters after meeting with representatives from business groups at the ministry in Taipei. The ministry has been holding daily cross-ministry meetings at the Executive Yuan to ensure
RATIONING: The proposal would give the Trump administration ample leverage to negotiate investments in the US as it decides how many chips to give each country US officials are debating a new regulatory framework for exporting artificial intelligence (AI) chips and are considering requiring foreign nations to invest in US AI data centers or security guarantees as a condition for granting exports of 200,000 chips or more, according to a document seen by Reuters. The rules are not yet final and could change. They would be the first attempt to regulate the flow of AI chips to US allies and partners since US President Donald Trump’s administration said it rescinded its predecessor’s so-called AI diffusion rules. Those rules sought to keep a significant amount of AI
A new worry has been rippling across the stock market lately: Entire businesses, not just their employees, might be thrown out of work. While most economists say fears of an artificial intelligence (AI) job apocalypse are overblown, seismic shifts have happened in the past after big tech breakthroughs. The IT revolution of the 1990s led to a surge in productivity that sped up the US economy for several years. It also rendered companies or even industries largely redundant — from travel agents and stockbrokers to classified advertising and newspapers, or video rental stores. Economists expect AI would deliver higher productivity,
RSS