Hong Kong’s crown as initial public offerings capital of the world has slipped. After three years of topping the global rankings for IPOs, this year the city fell to fourth place, only narrowly beating Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital.
The global IPO market has not had a stellar year but Hong Kong’s pain is particularly acute. A prolonged slowdown in the Chinese economy and a depressed Shanghai stock market have punctured enthusiasm for equity market debuts from Chinese companies. A string of disappointing issues has also served to blunt appetite.
With sentiment weak, Hong Kong has failed to attract any new international listings this year. Italian fashion house Prada and US luggage maker Samsonite chose to list in the city in 2011, following the debuts of French cosmetics company L’Occitane and Russian aluminium maker Rusal in 2010.