IPOs fail to lift Hong Kong market

Weak performances of several recent inital public offerings (IPOs) have dampened hopes of a revival in the Hong Kong market, The Wall Street Journal reported. Although the US$3.1 million IPO People’s Insurance (1339.HKG) conducted Friday was the city’s largest offering since 2010, it priced at HK$3.48 per share, at the low end of its indicative range. Zhengzhou Coal Mining Machinery Group (601717.SH) relied on its underwriters to buy up the 12.5% of its shares that went unsold, sources said. And on Sunday, Cheung Kong (Holdings) (0001.HK) stated it will postpone the IPO of its subsidiary Horizon Hospitality (Holdings) due to weak market conditions. Hong Kong’s IPO market has shrunk 66% year-on-year to US$10 billion so far this year, according to Dealogic. It now follows New York, Nasdaq and Tokyo as the fourth largest market in the world in terms of the deal value of new listings.