Baidu makes subdued Hong Kong trading debut

[HONG KONG] Baidu Inc shares were 1.1 per cent higher in early trade Tuesday as the Chinese internet giant debuted on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange following its secondary listing in the city.

The company priced its shares at HK$252 each as part of its secondary listing in Hong Kong, raising US$3.1 billion.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was up 0.1 per cent in early trade Tuesday.

The tepid debut comes as video site Bilibili finalised its secondary listing on Tuesday to raise US$2.6 billion, which was below the company's initial target of about US$3 billion.

Baidu's deal was 112 times oversubscribed by retail investors while the institutional book was covered 10 times, according to the company's filings with the city's exchange.

New York-listed Baidu sold 95 million shares in the deal which represented 3.4 per cent of the company's total share capital.

Eight of Baidu's Hong Kong shares represent one of its American Depositary Shares, which closed up 3.36 per cent on Monday.

Analysts attributed the subdued debut to investors becoming increasingly wary towards Chinese technology stocks.

Baidu was the 15th US-listed Chinese company to carry out a Hong Kong listing since Alibaba stoked the trend in November 2019 when it listed US$12.9 billion worth of stock on the city's exchange.

Since then, more than US$20 billion has been raised in secondary listings in Hong Kong, according to Refinitiv data.

REUTERS