Hong Kong is a strong contender for the number one position in the global initial public offering market in 2025, with the financial market strongly interested in many leading Chinese mainland enterprises, a local IPO analyst said.

“Based on a cautiously optimistic assessment, Hong Kong is well placed to contend for the top position in the global IPO market in 2025,” said Edward Au, southern region managing partner of Deloitte China.

Au said Deloitte maintains its full-year forecast of around 80 new listings in the city, raising funds between HK$130 billion ($16.6 billion) and HK$150 billion.

Louis Lau, partner and head of Hong Kong capital markets group at KPMG China, said the Hong Kong stock market hosted 27 IPOs in total in the first five months of this year, raising approximately HK$77.7 billion.

“This figure represents an increase of more than eight times that of the same period last year when the figure stood at HK$9.6 billion,” Lau said.

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And this robust performance can largely be attributed to the successful completion of five A+H listings, including the listing of Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), which collectively accounted for 72 percent of the total funds raised, Lau added.

Bonnie Chan Yiting, CEO of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, said in an RTHK interview that currently there are 160 companies in the IPO pipeline, and nearly 20 companies have raised more than $1 billion. More than 40 new stock-listing applications were received last month.

Chan added that the total value of the Hong Kong equity market has increased from less than HK$5 trillion to nearly HK$41 trillion in the last 25 years, and the number of listed companies has increased from fewer than 800 to more than 2,600 in the same period.

Following the listing of mainland electric car battery maker CATL, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange welcomes another mega mainland company IPO, with the share sale of leading mainland flavoring and sauce manufacturer Foshan Haitian Flavoring & Food Co having ended on Monday.

According to market estimates, the new share subscription based on margin lending is expected to be close to HK$400 billion, with an oversubscription of about 696 times. The company is reportedly planning to expand the scale of its Hong Kong listing and increase the fundraising amount to $10.1 billion by fixing the listing price at the upper limit of the guidance price range.

The new share-offer price was fixed at between HK$35 and HK$36.3 per share to raise HK$9.56 billion. With a broad lot size of 100 shares, investors are expected to pay HK$3,666.6 to invest in one lot of the share.

Haitian’s new share is expected to be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange this Thursday. 

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Haitian is a public company listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and a mainland listed company that was first included in the MSCI China Index. According to Haitian’s corporate website, the flavoring manufacturer generated a revenue of 26.9 billion yuan ($3.75 billion) and a net profit of 6.3 billion yuan in 2024.

Local media reports disclosed that Shein, a Chinese mainland e-commerce company valued at over $30 billion, would submit an IPO application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in the next few weeks. Rednote, a Chinese mainland social media platform valued at over $26 billion, will start listing in Hong Kong as early as the end of 2025.

The latest research report published by China International Capital Corp in June indicates that nearly 50 companies plan to list their shares in Hong Kong, probably 3raising about HK$150 billion to HK$180 billion in total.