China Tourism Duty Free said to get green light for Hong Kong IPO

Shanghai-listed China Tourism Group Duty Free has been given green light to proceed with Hong Kong IPO, source says

With a market cap of US$70.4 billion, the world’s largest travel retailer by sales is set to raise US$5 billion, reports say

3-MIN READ3-MIN

Tourists shop at a duty-free shopping mall in Sanya City, south China's Hainan Province, Oct. 5, 2020. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 8:00pm, 17 Nov 2021Updated: 10:22pm, 17 Nov 2021

China Tourism Group Duty Free has got the green light from the Hong Kong stock exchange’s listing committee for its flotation on the main board, according to a source familiar with the transaction, bringing it a step closer to what could amount to a multibillion dollar initial public offering.

The approval was first reported by IFR on Wednesday morning. The world’s largest travel retailer by sales, which has a market capitalisation of 449.9 billion yuan (US$70.5 billion) based on its closing price of 230.4 yuan Wednesday in Shanghai, could be targeting to raise US$5 billion, other media have reported previously.

A multibillion-dollar deal would be a shot in the arm for the Hong Kong bourse, which ranked as the world’s third-biggest IPO exchange for the first 10 month this year, behind Nasdaq and New York, largely helped by a robust first half.

Blockbuster IPOs such as the US$5.4 billion offer by short-video platform Kuaishou, and JD Logistics and internet giant Baidu – which each raised over US$3 billion – helped the Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing raise US$38 billion over 76 deals for the 10 months to October, data from Refinitiv shows.

But in the second half, Li Auto was the only deal that raised more than US$1 billion, as fundraising in the third quarter stood at its lowest since the first quarter of last year, when Covid-19 impacted the market