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Hong Kong intervenes to weaken currency as investors queue up for a piece of Ant Group’s mega IPO
- Stock exchange listing committee meeting to review Ant Group’s IPO application this month, sources say
- HKMA has intervened in markets eight times over the past eight days to sell HK$33.07 billion worth of Hong Kong dollars and to buy the same amount of US dollars
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Overseas investors are piling into Hong Kong ahead of the mega initial public offering of China’s largest digital payments provider by volume, Ant Group, forcing the local currency higher, said brokers.
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More than HK$33.07 billion (US$4.3 billion) of capital has flowed into Hong Kong since September 14, prompting the city’s de facto central bank to intervene multiple times in currency markets to try to weaken the Hong Kong dollar.
Hong Kong stock exchange’s listing committee is likely to vet Ant’s application this month, according to two sources familiar with the matter. If approved, which is widely expected by stockbrokers, it will be seen among financial market participants as a birthday present for China from Hong Kong just ahead of China’s National Day public holiday on October 1.
“Ant Group’s IPO is the biggest deal of the year. It is natural to see capital inflow from international investors as they prepare to buy into the IPO,” said Robert Lee, chief executive of Hong Kong-based broker Grand Capital Holdings. “All my customers keep asking when this IPO will happen as they want to invest in it.”
Ant, an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, which also owns the Post, is pursuing a dual listing in Shanghai and Hong Kong.
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Ant received approval last Friday from the listing committee of the Star Market, Shanghai‘s Nasdaq-style stock market, just four weeks after filing.
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