ESR Cayman’s shares advance in Hong Kong trading debut, helping market claw back some of its mojo lost in trade war, street protests
- The logistics real estate developer’s IPO is the second-biggest listing in Asia and on the Hong Kong stock exchange after Budweiser Brewing Company APAC
- Listing is another boost to the Hong Kong stock exchange as it fights for global fundraising crown with New York, Nasdaq
ESR Cayman, the operator of logistics warehouses and industrial real estate, was lucky the second time around in the capital market, as its shares advanced in their Hong Kong stock exchange trading debut.
ESR shares finished the day on Friday at HK$17.70, or 5.4 per cent above their initial public offering price of HK$16.80.
The offer, which raised US$1.6 billion for the Warburg Pincus-backed company, was the second-biggest in Asia and on the Hong Kong stock exchange this year after the US$5.8 billion IPO in September by Budweiser Brewing Company APAC, according to Bloomberg data.
ESR traded as high as HK$18.06 in the first hour of Hong Kong’s morning session. Five of the largest offerings this year in Asia have had mixed debuts. China Railway Signal saw its stock price double, while Budweiser posted a 4 per cent gain on September 30 and Bangkok-based Asset World had a flattish performance in Thailand this month.
“In the first go-around in the first few months, we got sandwiched in-between the geopolitical events. There are so many things you can’t control,” said Jeffrey Perlman, the ESR chairman and a managing director at Warburg Pincus. “The feedback we got from prospective investors [was that] they really want to see this as a public company. On the back of the successful IPO, it certainly gives us a lot of conviction alongside that feedback we got from the market.”