War in the Middle East weighed on the market debuts of three Hong Kong listings on Monday that had hoped to ride a wave of momentum for share sales in the city this year.
Shenzhen Zhaowei Machinery & Electronics, Estun Automation and Alsco Pooling Service are the first Hong Kong share listings since the conflict broke out at the end of last month.
Of the three, Zhaowei fared best, with shares in the micro-drive provider rising 9.4 percent from its offer price of HK$71.28, although its initial public offering priced the stock well below its maximum offer price of HK$73.68.
Industrial robot maker Estun dropped around 15 percent after pricing at the bottom of its offer range. Reusable packaging service provider Alsco saw its shares tumble some 32 percent after also pricing shares at the bottom of its IPO range.
Hong Kong has had the strongest start to a year for share sales since 2021, with IPOs and secondary listings in January raising around US$5.5 billion, LSEG data showed.
A wave of Chinese companies planned to come to market after last month’s Lunar New Year holiday, but have been faced by souring investor sentiment as the Middle East war sent oil prices surging and stoked worries about a hit to global growth.
Iran has named Mojtaba Khamenei to succeed his slain father, Ali Khamenei, as supreme leader, showing that hardliners are still in control of the country and adding fresh uncertainty to the outlook.
The three companies raised a combined HK$3.62 billion in share sales last week.
Zhaowei raised the bulk of that at HK$1.91 billion, after launching its offer on February 27, a day before the war broke out.
Reuters
