Hong Kong regains crown from New York as the No 1 market for raising funds
Eighty-four companies raise US$28.6 billion in the first nine months, up 220 per cent from a year earlier
Hong Kong beat New York for the first time in 18 months to reclaim the crown as the No 1 market worldwide for IPOs in the first nine months of this year, as the listing reform led to a slew of companies raising funds in the city, according to data from Thomson Reuters.
This also marked the first time Hong Kong has risen to the top of global IPO rankings since it fell to fourth place in the first quarter of 2017 behind New York, Shanghai and Shenzhen, the quarterly data showed.
Eighty-four companies raised US$28.6 billion through IPOs on Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing’s main board in the first nine months of the year until Wednesday, up 220 per cent from the US$8.93 billion raised a year earlier.
New York, the top IPO market worldwide since the first quarter of 2017, dropped to second place as 48 companies raised US$25.1 billion during the first nine months. Nasdaq ranked third at US$18 billion while Shanghai took fourth place at US$10.44 billion.
The driving force behind the HKEX’s IPO boom was the listing reform in April, which attracted three big technology blockbusters from July to September. About 42 per cent of IPO funds raised so far were by telecommunications firms, hi-tech firms accounted for 5 per cent, retail 19 per cent, financial 13 per cent, real estate 7 per cent and others accounted for the rest.