HK to be among top three IPO markets in 2025, says Deloitte

Staff reporter

Hong Kong could host a mega initial public offering as soon as this quarter and has the potential to rank among the top three global IPO markets by fundraising this year, said Edward Au Chun-hing, managing partner for the southern region at Deloitte China.

The city's IPO market raised HK$18.2 billion in the first quarter of this year, up nearly 2.9 times from a year earlier, ranking fourth globally, according to Deloitte.

Hong Kong trailed the Nasdaq Stock Market, the New York Stock Exchange, and the Tokyo Stock Exchange in total fundraising.

The first quarter saw 15 IPOs in Hong Kong, a 25 percent rise compared to 12 listings in the same period of 2024. In the past quarter, 64 percent of IPOs were oversubscribed by more than 20 times. Meanwhile, 46 percent debuted with a price-to-earnings ratio of 10 to 20 times, up four percentage points from a year earlier, while the share of IPOs listing at a price-to-earnings ratio of 5 to 10 times rose 10 percentage points to 27 percent.

Deloitte maintained its full-year forecast of around 80 new listings in the city, raising between HK$130 billion and HK$150 billion.

The firm expects fundraising to be driven by large-capitalization A-shares, leading Chinese firms, secondary listings from the Middle East and Association of Southeast Asian Nations companies, as well as artificial intelligence and health care sectors.

Au expects four-to-five IPOs to raise over US$1 billion (HK$7.8 billion) throughout the year.

In the mainland, the A-share market's ongoing rollout of new capital market measures has slowed the pace of IPOs. In the first quarter, 27 new listings raised 16.3 billion yuan (HK$17.45 billion), marking a 10 percent decline in the number of IPOs and a 31 percent drop in fundraising compared to the 30 listings and 23.6 billion yuan raised in the same period last year.