China's Weilong Delicious pares early losses, jump 1.9% in Hong Kong debut (updated)

Weilong Delicious Global Holdings

15/12/2022 02:04

(Adds details, updates share movement)
    By Scott Murdoch and Donny Kwok
       Dec 15 (Reuters) - Shares in Chinese snack maker Weilong
Delicious Global Holdings Ltd  9985.HK  rose 1.9% in early
trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Thursday, after
initially opening deep in the red.
    The company raised $130.6 million by selling its shares at
HK$10.56 each in its initial public offering (IPO).
    Weilong shares fell 3.4% on debut but then steadily tracked
higher to be trading in positive territory.
    Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index  .HSI  is down 1.1% in early
trade.
    Weilong sold 96.4 million shares in the deal, which was a
trimmed down offering compared to the company's previous plans
in 2021. 
    Weilong, founded in 1999 and based in Luohe city in the
central Chinese province of Henan, makes popular spicy snacks
made of soybeans and eggs. It also produces non-spicy snacks.
    The company had hoped to raise up to $1 billion last year
but the deal was put on hold due to finacial market volatility,
sources previously told Reuters.
    At HK$10.56 each, the final price was towards the lower end
of the HK$10.40 to HK$11.40 price range set when the deal
launched last week.
    The stock was subsribed 15 times more than what was on offer
in the retail tranche of the IPO, according to Weilong's listing
documents.
    The demand for the company's offer reverses a recent trend
in IPOs, where retail investors have not taken up their
allocation of stock because of fears buying into uncertain local
markets.
    The Hang Seng Index is down 16% so far in 2022.
    Institutional demand was 2.6 times the stock on offer to
those investors, the listing documents showed.
 (Reporting by Scott Murdoch in Sydney and Donny Kwok in Hong
Kong; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Rashmi Aich)
 ((Scott.Murdoch@thomsonreuters.com;))