JD Logistics (2618), the shipping arm of e-commerce giant JD.com (9618), rose more than 20 percent in the gray market as investors bet on a decent Hong Kong debut today.
The company raised HK$24.11 billion from its initial public offering, after pricing the deal at HK$40.36 per share, near the bottom of the indicative price range.
Shares of JD Logistics rose as high as more than 40 percent in gray markets last night, but gains narrowed to about 20 percent later.
More than 1.36 million retail investors bid for the public sale, signaling investor sentiment in the local IPO markets was turning bullish again.
The retail portion of the deal was covered 715 times. The institutional tranche was oversubscribed 10.8 times.
The company could raise an additional HK$3.63 billion if the over-allotment option, known as the green-shoe option, is exercised.
JD Logistics plans to use 55 percent of net proceeds to upgrade and expand its logistics networks. Other parts of the fund will be for technology investment, expanding customer base.
Meanwhile, SenseTime Group, China's largest artificial intelligence company, is seeking a Hong Kong listing as soon as the end of the year, IFR reported. The company is also preparing an A-share listing, the report said.
SenseTime is exploring a dual listing in Hong Kong and China as it closes in on US$1.5 billion (HK$11.7 billion) of pre-IPO financing, Bloomberg reported last August.
The company's valuation has reached US$12 billion in the latest round of financing, mainland media reported in January.
SenseTime is at the vanguard of a rising crop of Chinese players that have benefited from the country's rapid adoption of facial recognition technology and AI across a plethora of sectors. The company is working with 127 cities across its home country to use cameras to analyze everything from traffic to residential complex security.
It was blacklisted by the United States in 2019, which accused it, with another seven Chinese firms, of being implicated in human rights violations against Muslim minorities in China's Xinjiang region.
JD Logistics raised HK$24.11 billion from its IPO. BLOOMBERG
