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FWD shares rise in Hong Kong debut as insurer ends listing quest with a hometown triumph
The Hong Kong IPO is not the end-game for the home-grown Hong Kong insurer, as its CEO Huynh eyes a new growth phase
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FWD Group wrapped up its first trading day in Hong Kong with a modest gain, as the insurer’s four-year journey to list on a stock market brought it from New York back to its hometown.
Trading under the stock code 1828, FWD’s shares ended Monday at HK$38.40 in a declining market, a 1-per cent premium to its initial public offering (IPO) price of HK$38, after swinging between a loss of 2.5 per cent and an intraday gain of 2.1 per cent.
The IPO, which raised HK$3.47 billion (US$442 million) last week, was overbought by 37 times, as investors pounced at the chance to get a slice of the insurer that tycoon Richard Li Tzar-kai built into a pan-Asian business in a little over a decade, with more than 30 million customers across 10 regional markets.
“A successful IPO is a very important milestone for us, but it is not the end-game for us,” the insurer’s CEO Huynh Thanh Phong said in an interview with the Post on Sunday. “The IPO gives us flexibility in capital management. It supports our vision of building a pan-Asian business that is based in Hong Kong and serves customers across Asia.”
The IPO will help improve FWD's capital structure and serve a bigger pool of clients in the coming years as demand for insurance protection increases with wealth creation, Huynh said.
The insurer sold 91.3 million shares, giving FWD a market capitalisation of HK$48.80 billion (US$6.22 billion). About 30 per cent of the IPO shares went to retail investors, tripling the initial allocation to meet excess demand. FWD has an option to sell a further 13.7 million shares through an overallotment to IPO managers.
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