Hong Kong is dusting off the gong for the territory’s first in-person listing ceremony in two years.
Logistics start-up GogoX Holdings Ltd (快狗打車) is hosting a ceremony at the exchange’s newly refurbished HKEX Connect Hall tomorrow, a media invitation said.
Attendees are required to pre-register and to declare they have taken a rapid COVID-19 antigen test the same day showing a negative result. Everyone must wear a mask.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The listing ceremony is another sign of normalcy that Hong Kong has been looking for after two years of stringent social distancing measures. The COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped dealmaking globally as meetings and due diligence go virtual because of travel restrictions.
InnoCare Pharma Ltd (諾誠健華醫藥), a Chinese biotech firm, was among the first in Hong Kong to opt for a virtual investor meeting in early 2020.
Striking a gong is a key feature of a listing ceremony in Hong Kong just like the iconic bell ringing ceremony in New York. In the Asian territory, executives usually hit the gong with mallets in red cloth, a color symbolizing good fortune and joy in Chinese culture. Since the pandemic, the gong ceremony has gone virtual.
Hong Kong’s initial public offering (IPO) market is also waiting for a big bang as inflation concerns and the war in Ukraine have slowed down activity significantly. Companies have raised about US$2.4 billion through IPOs so far this year, only a fraction of the US$26.2 billion raised during the same period last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
GogoX last week held Hong Kong’s first in-person IPO press briefing in months. The start-up is also among a few companies that are set to defy the slump and test the waters.
Although it is only raising about US$86 million, the start-up has enlisted four banks as its IPO sponsors: UBS Group AG, China International Capital Corp (中國國際金融), Bocom International Holdings Co (交銀國際控股) and ABC International Holdings Ltd (農銀國際).
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