Hong Kong exchange reports IPO drought in 2022 as profits slide

Hong Kong exchange reports IPO drought in 2022 as profits slide

HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s stock exchange last year saw the fewest new listings in more than a decade, it said Thursday as the city struggles to emerge from pandemic isolation and kickstart an economic recovery. Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) reported 90 initial public offerings during 2022, raking in HK$104.6 billion ($13.3 billion), a fall of almost 70 percent from the previous year.

Before the pandemic, Hong Kong’s bourse was often crowned as the top IPO venue in the world, drawing more than 100 new listings annually between 2013 and 2020. The latest figures mark a steep drop from peak levels in 2020 when IPOs raised HK$400 billion.

The recession-hit city’s exchange also saw annual profits plunge 20 percent to HK$10.1 billion, the first drop since 2016. At the start of last year, vast swathes of Hong Kong’s economy shut down as the highly transmissible Omicron variant fuelled the city’s worst-ever coronavirus outbreak.

The economic environment was further complicated by a regulatory crackdown in mainland China that waylaid initial public offerings from Chinese mega-companies. Hong Kong markets rallied last month as investors rode a wave of optimism about China’s reopening and hopes for an easing of US interest rate hikes, though they