By Scott Murdoch and Donny Kwok
HONG KONG (Reuters) -Positive trading debuts on Friday for Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals and Mirxes Holdings, which raised a combined $1.4 billion in separate listings, capped one of the strongest weeks for Hong Kong’s capital markets in the past year.
More than $6.5 billion of shares started to trade in Hong Kong this week, led by electric vehicle battery maker CATL’s $5.3 billion listing, the largest in the world this year.
Chinese pharmaceutical company Jiangsu Hengrui’s shares rose as much as 37% in its Hong Kong debut on Friday, after finalising its $1.27 billion listing at the top of the price range. Jiangsu Hengrui is also listed in Shanghai.
Mirxes, a Singapore-headquartered cancer treatment company, saw shares were also trading as much as 37% higher in Hong Kong after it raised $139 million in an initial public offering.
Demand for new share sales in Hong Kong is strong, despite ongoing geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China, with sentiment boosted by the recent 90-day pause in the tariffs war.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index, up 0.5% on Friday, is one of the world’s best performing major markets this year, trading 18% higher since the start of 2025.
The higher market has helped propel equity capital market activity in Hong Kong, with the value of initial public offerings and listings hitting $9.82 billion, up from $1.1 billion at the same time last year, LSEG data showed. It is the best start to the year since 2021, according to the data.
The retail tranche of Jiangsu Hengrui’s share sale was 455 times oversubscribed, while the institutional tranche was 17 times covered, the company’s filings showed.
The final price of its Hong Kong shares, set at the top of the range, was about a 27% discount to its Shanghai traded stock.
Rob Chan, Citigroup’s Asia head of equity capital market syndicate, said global long-only investors, sovereign wealth funds, hedge funds and Chinese investors participated in the Hengrui deal.
Citigroup was a sponsor of Jiangsu Hengrui’s listing alongside Morgan Stanley and Huaitai International, according to the company’s prospectus.
“The demand for high-quality companies remains strong, as we witnessed in both the bookbuilding stage and the post-listing performance,” Chan said.
“While the pipeline for the rest of the year is strong and more high-quality names are looking to list across the region, companies will need to be cognizant of the global market environment and be tactical around windows to come to market.”
Bonnie Chan, CEO of bourse operator Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, said on Tuesday more than 40 firms listed in mainland China, known as A-share companies, were exploring Hong Kong listings to access offshore funding to support international expansion plans.
Elsewhere in Asia, Malaysian discount household retail chain Eco-Shop Marketing debuted nearly 11% higher after raising 974 million ringgit ($228.96 million) from a local listing. The company raised 392.1 million ringgit from new shares from the IPO and planned to use the proceeds for expansion, its prospectus showed.
(Reporting by Scott Murdoch in Sydney and Donny Kwok in Hong Kong; Editing by Jamie Freed)
