Chinese bubble tea maker Mixue Group plans to raise about US$500 million from its Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) after peer Guming Holdings completed a US$232 million upsized share sale in the city.
Mixue, China’s largest freshly made drinks firm, would begin book-building by the end of this month and list on the Hong Kong stock exchange in early March, according to Reuters on Tuesday, which cited sources.
Mixue, which has more than 40,000 stores in mainland China and overseas, received approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission on January 7, reversing a freeze on the firm’s listing plan.
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While Mixue and Guming had applied to list in Hong Kong in 2024, their applications lapsed after six months as they did not receive regulatory approval. Chinese regulators were concerned about the firms’ prospects after the shares of peer Sichuan Baicha Baidao plunged 27 per cent on debut last April following a US$330 million IPO.
Mixue plans to use the IPO proceeds to expand production facilities and enhance its brand and marketing, according to its exchange filing.
The company’s profit surged 45.2 per cent year on year to 3.5 billion yuan (US$478.96 million) in the first nine months of last year.
Guming Holdings’ listing ceremony at the Hong Kong stock exchange on Wednesday. Photo: Aileen Chuang alt=Guming Holdings’ listing ceremony at the Hong Kong stock exchange on Wednesday. Photo: Aileen Chuang>
Mixue’s proposed IPO followed Guming’s debut on Wednesday. Guming’s shares finished the first day of trading 6.4 per cent below the IPO price of HK$9.94.
Guming raised HK$1.81 billion from the sale of 182.4 million shares after pricing them at the top end of the HK$8.68 to HK$9.94 range. The number of shares on offer was increased by 15 per cent.
Institutional investors had their share allocation scaled back to 56.5 per cent from 90 per cent following strong demand from retail investors, whose allocation was increased to 43.5 per cent from 10 per cent.
The IPO attracted nearly 195 times the number of shares allocated to retail investors and more than 15 times the shares allocated to international investors.
The IPO attracted five cornerstone investors that committed a total of US$71 million for more than 30.5 per cent of the shares on offer. Huang River Investment, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tencent Holdings, invested US$25 million.
