The startup behind a TikTok-style video app rocketed in its Hong Kong market debut, making the latest demonstration of investor hunger for initial public offerings and for high-growth technology companies.
Shares in Kuaishou Technology nearly tripled from their IPO price in early trading Friday, implying a market value of more than $ 160 billion, versus nearly $ 61 billion when the share sale was priced.
Kuaishou is backed by the Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. TCEHY 1.48% and competes with ByteDance Ltd., the closely held Chinese firm behind TikTok and its domestic sister app, Douyin. The $ 5.4 billion initial public offering is the world’s largest in more than a year, according to Dealogic.
The offering is the latest in a string of hot IPOs in Hong Kong, many involving Chinese technology startups or other companies catering to China’s increasingly affluent consumers. Last year, for example, the bottled-water group Nongfu Spring Co. 9633,
In Friday morning trading, Kuaishou’s stock nearly tripled to 320.20 Hong Kong dollars a share, compared with an IPO price of HK$ 115, equivalent to $ 14.80. The surge echoed a huge leap in gray-market trading on Thursday afternoon.
