Hong Kong retains global IPO crown in first quarter but faces US mega listings Hong Kong has retained its top position in terms of initial public offering (IPO) funds raised in the first quarter of this year but industry experts said the city could lose its lead to the US over the full year given the number of mega IPOs expected there, from OpenAI to Elon Musk’s SpaceX. A total of 37 companies raised about US$13.26 billion on the Hong Kong stock exchange’s main board in the three months ended March 31, according to data released on Tuesday by LSEG Data and Analytics. That represents a 453 per cent increase from the same period in 2025. There was also one GEM IPO that raised US$9 million, bringing the total for all boards to the highest first-quarter total in five years. Second place for IPO funds raised was Nasdaq, with US$5.65 billion from 18 listings, while the New York Stock Exchange ranked third with US$4.95 billion raised through nine listings. The Shanghai Stock Exchange’s Star Market ranked seventh, Singapore was in eighth place and Shenzhen ChiNext was No 10, according to LSEG. Although Hong Kong was off to a very strong start this year, “the real question is the full year”, according to Edward Au, southern region managing partner for Deloitte China. “We’re seeing strong competition from the US, especially with potential mega IPOs in [artificial intelligence] and space that could raise very significant amounts individually. If those deals go ahead, they could shift the global rankings quite quickly,” said Au. In the US, investors are watching for potential debuts from some of the most closely followed private companies of the past decade, including AI giants OpenAI and Anthropic as well as Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Any listing by these companies would be a blockbuster, with fundraising potentially running into the tens of billions of dollars. That said, “Hong Kong’s strength is not about one or two blockbuster deals – it’s about a deep and consistent pipeline, particularly from Chinese and regional issuers”, Au added. Chinese companies dominated Hong Kong’s first-quarter listings, capturing 99.9 per cent of total proceeds with US$13.26 billion raised – a more than a six-fold increase in proceeds and nearly triple the number of issues compared with the same period last year, according to LSEG. Hong Kong also hosted three of the world’s top 10 IPOs and secondary listings in the first quarter, including Muyuan Foods’ US$1.5 billion offering which was the largest in the city so far this year. “We expect Hong Kong would still remain in the top three [for the full year], with the US having a number of mega listings such as SpaceX and OpenAI,” said John Lee Chen-kwok, vice-chairman and co-head of Asia coverage at UBS in Hong Kong. “Middle East tensions would have a short-term impact on the IPO market [which] should normalise after the tensions ease,” Lee said. He added that overall IPO market volume would be highly dependent on the China Securities Regulatory Commission registration process and timing, as mainland companies needed government approval before listing in Hong Kong. Hi-tech firms accounted for 49.1 per cent of the total IPO and secondary listings in Hong Kong in the first three months, raising US$6.5 billion from 15 listings, compared to none in the same period last year. They included MiniMax, which raised HK$4.8 billion (US$620 million) to fund research and development, as well as graphics processing unit (GPU) maker Shanghai Biren Technology and semiconductor firm OmniVision Integrated Circuit Group. Looking ahead, Chinese spatial computing software developer Manycore Tech and Nasdaq-listed iQiyi, a Chinese video streaming platform backed by Baidu, also plan to list in Hong Kong. “While staying No 1 will be competitive, we believe Hong Kong remains very well positioned to stay within the top three globally in 2026,” said Au of Deloitte. https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/3348536/hong-kong-retains-global-ipo-crown-first-quarter-faces-us-mega-listings?pgtype=live (ICE HONG KONG)

Fonte notizia: South China Morning Post