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).
Dutch brewing company Heineken NV yesterday said that it has reached an agreement to acquire a subsidiary brewery of Taiwan’s Sanyo Whisbih Group (三洋維士比集團). Heineken is to assume majority ownership and management rights of the Long Chuan Zuan Co (龍泉鑽興業) brewery in Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔), the Dutch company said. It would become the first multinational brewing company to operate brewery in Taiwan once the acquisition is completed. The deal has been approved by the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Investment Commission, but details of the financial transaction cannot be disclosed at this time, as terms of the settlement have not been completed,
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