The decision of Chinese broker Guotai Junan to offer a single price for its $2.1bn Hong Kong flotation, pricing on Friday, has stirred hopes that it could encourage greater international interest in the city’s initial public offerings.
The Hong Kong Exchange has led global IPO rankings for the past two years, but the parade of flotations by mostly Chinese state-owned enterprises has attracted little attention from international investors, leaving the deals reliant on Chinese funds — dubbed “friends and family” — to get across the line.
Guotai Junan is China’s third-biggest brokerage by sales, ranking behind Citic Securities and Haitong. Its flotation is the second-largest globally this year, behind the $3.9bn US IPO of Snap, the messaging app group.