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China Tourism Group Duty Free, biggest IPO of 2022, makes lacklustre debut in Hong Kong
- China Tourism Group Duty Free closed flat at HK$158.00 on its debut on Thursday
- The closely watched debutant only had half a day trading after tropical storm Ma-on delayed the start
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China Tourism Group Duty Free, the world’s largest travel retailer by sales, got off to a lacklustre start on its closely-watched debut on the Hong Kong stock exchange on Thursday.
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The shares closed at HK$158.00, the same as its initial public offering price. At one point they dropped to HK$120.00 within a few minutes of the start of trading. The Hang Seng Index rose 3.6 per cent to 19,968.38 on Thursday.
Trading in the Beijing-based company’s stock was delayed until 1pm on Thursday as severe tropical storm Ma-on led to the cancellation of the morning session. The company, which operates under the “cdf” brand and has the most duty free shops in China at 184, raised US$2.1 billion in the biggest IPO of the year so far.
The price works out to a roughly 28 per cent discount to its Shanghai closing price of 192.82 yuan, which rose 1.6 per cent on Thursday. Its A shares – a term used for the domestically listed stock of mainland Chinese companies – have lost about 12 per cent this year.
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As the biggest deal of 2022, China Tourism Group’s debut performance is being closely watched by market participants. The poor post-listing performance of several companies has been a strong deterrent of investors’ demand for IPOs this year, analysts have said.
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Half of the 22 firms that successfully listed in Hong Kong in the first half of the year finished their first trading day below their IPO price.
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