Media365
China’s energy-drinks giant Eastroc Beverage neither rose nor fell in its debut in Hong Kong on Tuesday amid investor caution following regulatory scrutiny of poor-quality listing applications.
Shares of the Shenzhen-based company, which makes an alternative to Red Bull, opened at HK$248, matching the offer price.
Eastroc raised HK$10.14 billion (US$1.3 billion) by issuing 40.89 million shares, the largest initial public offering (IPO) in the city so far this year.
In grey market trading ahead of the debut, it showed mixed performance across major brokerages, ranging from a 0.1 per cent decline to a 0.8 per cent gain.
During the share sale, retail investors poured in an estimated HK$44.2 billion via margin financing, representing an oversubscription of 43 times.
The IPO attracted 16 cornerstone investors, who subscribed to about 49 per cent of the offer. They included sovereign wealth funds Qatar Investment Authority and Temasek Holdings, US asset manager BlackRock, Chinese technology giant Tencent Holdings and Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li Tzar-kai’s investment vehicle.
