Drinks giant slurps up more than $1tn in margin loans

Staff reporter and Bloomberg

China's largest bubble tea and fresh drinks chain Mixue Group's initial public offering in Hong Kong has pulled in more than HK$1 trillion in margin loans from retail investors in just two days.

This makes it the third largest new listing by the amount of money borrowed through brokerages, behind Ant Group's failed share sale and Kuaishou Technology's (1024) IPO.

Mixue's retail tranche has been oversubscribed by more than 2,928 times since the sale opened on Friday.

Retail investors applied to borrow around HK$1.01 trillion through margin financing, according to data from brokerages.

Futu Securities lent as much as HK$650 billion, followed by Phillip Securities with HK$133.6 billion.

Tiger Brokers and Bright Smart Securities lent HK$100 billion and HK$64.35 billion respectively.

Mixue started retail book-building on February 21, offering shares at HK$202.50 apiece, with a minimum investment of HK$20,454.22 per board lot of 100 shares.

The company plans to issue a total of 17.06 million shares, with 10 percent reserved for the retail tranche, aiming to raise about HK$3.45 billion in total from its Hong Kong listing.

Mixue is famous for its 3-yuan (HK$3.2) ice cream and 7-yuan lemonade. It has the most expansive global network among fresh drinks makers with 40,510 stores in China and 11 other countries.

Meanwhile, Chinese artificial intelligence chip firm Shanghai Biren Intelligent Technology is considering an IPO in Hong Kong, people familiar with the matter said, reviving a listing plan after also looking at Shanghai.

Biren could seek to raise about US$300 million (HK$2.34 billion) in the IPO, the people said.

The AI chipmaker is working with China International Capital Corporation (3908), BOC International and Ping An Securities on the potential share sale, which could take place this year, the people said.

Deliberations are ongoing and details such as size and timing may change, the people said.

Biren could also decide against an IPO, they said.

Representatives for Biren, CICC, BOCI and Ping An didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Biren's renewed interest in an IPO coincides with a wave of investor enthusiasm for Chinese AI after the emergence of DeepSeek's latest lower-cost model, embraced as a potential industry game-changer.

DeepSeek's breakthrough has prompted a rotation into Chinese stocks and fueled a rally in Hong Kong too.

Biren's backers include China Merchants Capital Management, IDG Capital and Ping An Insurance (2318).