Hong Kong stock-listing boom rumbles toward 6-year high

A summer of mega deals is supercharging Hong Kong’s boom for stock-market debuts, with the city poised to notch a six-year high for proceeds barely more than halfway through 2026. Leading the wave is Zhongji Innolight, lining up a listing that could raise as much as $8 billion, which would be Hong Kong’s biggest since Alibaba Group Holding’s 2019 share sale. The Chinese maker of optical transceivers essential to data-center buildout is gauging investor interest starting Monday before taking orders for the deal as soon as this week. Fast-fashion company Shein Global Holdings is also nearing a Hong Kong initial public offering to raise $2 billion to $3 billion. AI supply-chain firms drive Hong Kong IPO proceeds toward $46 billion After a recovery in 2025, Hong Kong share sales gathered momentum this year, boosted by Chinese companies along the artificial-intelligence supply chain selling shares to finance expanding capacity as they compete with rivals around the world. Innolight and Shein’s share sales alone would lift Hong Kong listing proceeds to almost $46 billion so far this year, marking the highest annual haul since 2020. The first-time share sales also build on a fundraising spree this month, with AI model maker Zhipu raising $4 billion from a share placement. Other large deals in the pipeline could boost this year’s total even further. Eoptolink Technology, a Chinese maker of optical transceivers, has filed confidentially for a listing that could raise up to $5 billion, people familiar with the matter have said. Companies including Chinese AI pioneer DeepSeek, agricultural-technology giant Syngenta Group, and Baidu’s chip unit Kunlunxin are also on the horizon. The rush of deals shows “validation that there is still money to be deployed,” said Jason Lui, head of Asia-Pacific equity and derivative strategy at BNP Paribas. The slate of high-tech companies debuting in Hong Kong is also creating a new ecosystem of stocks on top of the old guard of internet firms, Lui said. “The most interesting transition over the past two years is that we have moved from a more internet- and financials- driven capital market into an AI, tech-hardware, high-end-manufacturing capital market as the local indices may take more time to reflect the shift in market capitalization,” he added. Shein faces valuation cuts and Temu competition ahead of listing Shein, however, had been under pressure from shareholders to cut its valuation to about $30 billion, having in the past been valued at more than three times that amount, people familiar with the matter said last year. The company has faced competition from PDD Holdings-owned Temu in key markets such as the US and Europe, while tariff-induced price increases have dented consumer demand and regulators have scrutinized its operations. The 100 companies that debuted and raised money in Hong Kong this year have altogether seen a roughly 29% gain from their listing prices on a weighted-average basis, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The average performance has shrunk from earlier in the year as investors started picking winners and losers and worries emerged that the AI spending spree is becoming harder to justify. The post-listing performances also diverge across sectors. Shares in newly listed technology firms in Hong Kong this year have more than doubled on a weighted-average basis, while those in the consumer sector rose about 3%. In the consumer space, investors would want to look for more signs of reflation in China, Lui said. A record deflationary run ended last quarter, but the turnaround brings little comfort for an economy that slowed in the April-June period to the weakest pace since the last months of 2022. “The fundraising window is still open, at least for the right type of company,” Lui said. By Dave Sebastian

Hong Kong stock-listing boom rumbles toward 6-year high

How Bottega Veneta weaved China’s forever it bag

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Hong Kong stock-listing boom rumbles toward 6-year high

How Bottega Veneta weaved China’s forever it bag