In the last four years, the Hong Kong IPO market has taken a few knock backs. 2012 saw the city’s bourse ranked just fourth in global IPO rankings down from number one – where it had sat for the previous three years – and then last summer, just as dealflow appeared to be back on track, Chinese internet giant the Alibaba Group announced it would no longer be using Hong Kong as a platform for the world’s largest IPO on record, but instead looking to the US.
Which is why the exchange’s ranking as the number two bourse for 2014, having seen 90 new listings valued at $29bn according to Dealogic, was such good news. One could blame the global economy – worldwide IPO value topping $263bn during the year, up 52% from 2013 and reaching its highest levels since 2010, but most market observers would agree that Hong Kong’s success has been, and will continue to be, more entrenched in its unique ability to service China.
