HONG KONG (Reuters) - Shares in Chinese online food delivery-to-ticketing services firm Meituan Dianping climbed 6 percent in their Hong Kong debut on Thursday, sending a positive signal to companies lining up to list in the financial hub.
The stock was trading at HK$73.1 in morning trade, compared with Meituan's initial public offering (IPO) price of HK$69 per share, which valued the company at $53 billion.
Tencent-backed Meituan's performance is being seen as a test of investor appetite for Hong Kong listings against a backdrop of weak markets and previous multi-billion dollar IPOs that have struggled to hold above their issue price, such as smartphone maker Xiaomi and China Tower.
The solid debut reflects investor confidence that Meituan can fend off bruising competition from food-delivery platform Ele.me, which is backed by China's biggest e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding. Both have been offering heavy discounts to win new customers, in a battle for market share.
Hong Kong is on track for a bumper year of listings, with $28.7 billion raised so far, helped in part by a market rally late last year and rules introduced this year to attract tech companies by allowing them to weight voting rights in favour of their founders.
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Meituan is the second company with such a share structure to go public as well as the second multibillion-dollar tech float in Hong Kong this year, following in the steps of Xiaomi.
(Reporting by Julia Fioretti; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
