TikTok rival Kuaishou rakes in HK$290B of margin funds at start of IPO
Chinese company Kuaishou Technology, the world’s second-largest short-video platform, attracted nearly HK$290 billion (US$37.4 billion) in margin funds from retail investors on Tuesday, the first day of its initial public offering in Hong Kong.
It will stop taking orders from institutional investors on Wednesday, two days earlier than planned.
An HSBC spokesperson said the bank recorded over HK$100 billion in IPO loans on the first day of subscription. The bank, along with 14 other financial institutions in Hong Kong, registered a total of HK$286.7 billion in margin lending.
Kuaishou, backed by China’s technological giant Tencent, is the biggest rival to ByteDance’s TikTok. It has valued the IPO at up to US$5.4 billion and will likely become the biggest internet IPO since Uber Technologies.
The company is expected to set its price on Friday and begin trading on Feb. 5.
Market sources say Kuaishou will market its 365 million shares to investors at HK$115 a share, the upper limit of the price range on its term sheet.
Bloomberg earlier reported that Kuaishou had reserved around 45% of the shares it was offering for high-profile cornerstone investors.
Alvin Cheung, associate director at Prudential Brokerage, described the public’s response to the IPO as “over the top.” He estimated that it would surpass the Hong Kong listing of Yidu Tech in terms of the funds raised and number of subscribers.
Just two weeks ago, Yidu was 1,633 times oversubscribed with 1.17 million subscribers. It raised HK$679 billion.
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