Tencent-backed Beike surges on NYSE debut after solid IPO reception, shrugging off ‘external noise’ amid frayed US-China relations
- China’s biggest real estate transaction platform raised US$2.12 billion from IPO at price above indicative range, the most in more than two years
- Stock jumps 87 per cent on the first day of trading in New York trading, valuing company at just under US$40 billion
Its American depositary shares (ADS) fetched US$35.06 in opening trades, compared with its IPO price of US$20. The ADS closed at US$37.44 each for an 87 per cent gain, the second-best Chinese US IPO debut among since January 2019, according to Dealogic.
This values China’s biggest online real estate transaction platform, better known at home as Beike Zhaofang, at just under US$40 billion, versus US$14 billion at its pre-IPO private funding round in March.
The company, backed by investors including Tencent Holdings and SoftBank Group, raised US$2.12 billion by selling 106 million ADS to investors. Beike’s IPO is the largest Chinese company listing in the US since video platform owner iQiyi collected US$2.4 billion in March 2018, according to Refinitiv.
The early performance shows there is a strong appetite from global investors for Chinese issues, according to chief executive Stanley Peng Yongdong, even after the US have introduced legislation and other proposals to place them under US auditing oversight on the threat of expulsion.