China's Zhongji Innolight seeks $55 billion Hong Kong listing, Asia's No. 2 in 2026

Chinese optical parts maker Zhongji Innolight aims to raise up to HK$55.05 billion in a Hong Kong listing, in what would be Asia's second-largest share sale this year, an exchange filing showed on Wednesday.

The Shenzhen-listed company is selling 54.5 million Hong Kong shares at a maximum price of HK$1,010 each. The deal could rise to HK$63.3 billion if a 15 percent over-allotment option is fully used.

The listing would be Hong Kong's biggest share sale in nearly seven years, since Alibaba's (9988) US$12.9 billion (HK$100.62 billion) listing in 2019. It would rank as Asia's second-largest listing this year after Chinese chipmaker CXMT Corp's US$8.6 billion Shanghai STAR Market initial public offering.

BIG INVESTORS ANCHOR DEAL

Zhongji has lined up 33 cornerstone investors to buy shares worth US$3.45 billion, equal to about 49.1 percent of the base offering at the maximum price, the filing showed. Cornerstone investors agree to buy shares before a listing and usually hold them for a set period.

They include Singapore state investor Temasek, Hillhouse-linked HHLR Advisors, JPMorgan Asset Management, BlackRock, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Wellington Management, Bain Capital, Boyu Capital, Alibaba, Tencent (0700), CPP Investments, Oaktree and General Atlantic.

Zhongji makes optical transceivers, small devices that help move large amounts of data through fibre-optic cables. The parts are used in data centres, cloud networks and artificial intelligence computing systems.

The listing comes as Chinese technology companies seek funding to expand artificial intelligence infrastructure, as they race with the US to build faster data centres and computing networks.

Zhongji's revenue rose 60.3 percent to 38.24 billion yuan (HK$44.28 billion) in 2025, while net profit more than doubled to 11.58 billion yuan, its prospectus showed. Revenue in the first quarter of 2026 nearly tripled to 19.50 billion yuan.

Proceeds from the listing will be used for research and development, global production expansion and enhancement of supply-chain capabilities, among others, the company's prospectus said.

Zhongji is expected to announce the final offer price by July 29, with shares slated to debut the following day.

Goldman Sachs, CICC, Morgan Stanley and GF Securities are joint sponsors of the deal.

Reuters and staff reporter

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