Trip.com Group shares open up 4.85% in Hong Kong debut

[HONG KONG] Trip.com Group shares opened at HK$281 (S$48.22) apiece as they debuted in Hong Kong on Monday, up 4.85 per cent from their secondary listing offer price.

The China-headquartered group sold its shares at HK$268 each to raise US$1.09 billion.

The travel and accommodation booking business had flagged in its launch documents the shares would not be priced above HK$333 each, which would have raised US$1.35 billion.

But the indicated price for the stock fell in the wake of a 5.4 per cent slide in Trip.com's Nasdaq-listed shares during the session last week when the Hong Kong deal was being finalised.

The overseas listed stock has, however, gained 8.9 per cent this year.

James Liang, co-founder and executive chairman of Trip.com Group, said domestic tourism has been improving gradually in China as the country has recovered from coronavirus.

In the recent three-day Qingming holiday, Chinese travellers made 102 million trips, equivalent to 94.5 per cent of the trips made over the holiday in 2019, official data shows.

Though overseas trip numbers disappeared, Mr Liang said domestic trips were more profitable for the group because the margin of international flights was relatively low.

"If people use the money instead on domestic hotels, it is not bad for our profit even though the turnover is smaller," Mr Liang told Reuters.

Trip.com's Hong Kong shares were trading at HK$276 by 2.04am GMT, while the Hang Seng Index was slightly down.

REUTERS