Foshan Haitian cooks up strong HKEX trading debut as investors lap up sauce maker’s stock
Company exercises an upsize option as its US$1.3 billion listing bolsters the city as the top global IPO venue
Trading under code 3288, Haitian’s shares closed 0.6 per cent higher in a declining market, after rising by as much as 4.7 per cent to an intraday high of HK$38, compared with their offer price of HK$36.30 at the top of their marketed range. The company is valued at US$27.15 billion, based on current prices.
The company sold 279 million shares, including 15.8 million shares – or 6 per cent of the original offering – it exercised under a size adjustment option to meet investors’ demand.
The retail and international tranches were oversubscribed by around 917 and 22 times respectively, according to a stock exchange filing on Wednesday. The strong demand among retail investors led Haitian to increase its allocation to 19.8 per cent of the total offer shares, up from the initial 6 per cent. Global funds received the remaining 80.2 per cent, according to the filing.
Retail investors applied for more than HK$400 billion in margin loans from brokerages to vie for Haitian shares, or about 700 times the value of the stock originally allocated to them in the public tranche, according to the data compiled by Futu Securities.