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Since Labubu took the world by storm last year, everyone on China’s toy scene has been trying to cast itself as the next Pop Mart, creator of the toy sensation. Pop Mart certainly didn’t start out that way at the time of its 2020 IPO. But its shares have risen manyfold since then, giving it a market value of HK$255 billion ($32.6 billion) – more than five times that for the older-school Mattel (MAT.US), owner of the Barbie franchise.
The latest player with Pop Mart-style aspirations could be Sunny & Sandy (Hunan) Group Ltd. a formerly obscure toymaker from the city of Xiangtan in Central China’s Hunan province, which filed an application for its own Hong Kong IPO last week.