Chinese snack retailer Busy Ming surges 69% in Hong Kong debut

[SINGAPORE/HONG KONG] Busy Ming Group shares jumped 69 per cent in their Hong Kong trading debut on Wednesday (Jan 28), after the Chinese snack and beverage retailer raised HK$3.67 billion (S$593 million) in an initial public offering.

The shares opened at HK$445 each, 88.1 per cent higher than their offer price of HK$236.60, before closing at HK$400, giving Busy Ming a market capitalisation of around HK$86.2 billion.

The opening-day surge made Busy Ming the fifth-strongest debut on record among Hong Kong retail and consumer products IPOs of at least US$100 million, according to Dealogic, trailing Smoore International, Pop Mart, Mao Geping and Laopu Gold.

Busy Ming sold 15.5 million shares in the IPO at the top end of a marketed range, versus an initially offered 14.1 million shares. The retail portion of the sale was nearly 1,900 times oversubscribed while the institutional portion was 44.44 times.

“Busy Ming had a strong performance on its first day of listing today,” said Kenny Ng, securities strategist at China Everbright Securities International.

“I believe the primary reasons for the stock’s popularity during the subscription process and the listing lie in Busy Ming’s past record of rapid growth.”

The company plans to use IPO proceeds for supply-chain improvement and product development, as well as to upgrade its store network and support franchisees.

The listing comes as Hong Kong attracts a steady stream of Chinese consumer, food and technology firms. Recent offerings and upcoming debuts include beverage maker Eastroc, pork producer Muyuan Foods, and chipmakers Montage Technology and Axera Semiconductor.

China’s biggest snack retailer

Busy Ming was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Changsha in Hunan province. It described itself in its IPO prospectus as China’s largest snack and beverage chain retailer by sales value in 2024, citing consultancy Frost & Sullivan.

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Busy Ming runs stores under the “Busy for You” and “Super Ming” brands, selling products such as biscuits, instant meals and drinks through a mainly franchised retail model.

It prices products about 25 per cent below the average of comparable supermarket offerings, Frost & Sullivan said in the prospectus.

At September-end, it had 19,517 stores across 28 provinces, about 59 per cent of which were in smaller towns and counties, the prospectus showed.

Revenue rose 75 per cent to 46.4 billion yuan (S$8.4 billion) in January to September 2025 versus the same period a year prior. The firm estimated full-year profit of not less than 2.3 billion yuan.

Cornerstone investors include social media and gaming major Tencent, Temasek Holdings, global investment firms BlackRock and FIL Investment, the prospectus showed.

“Their successful debut today not only highlights the depth and dynamism of China’s consumer market, but also marks the start of a new chapter for the company – enabling it to scale with more confidence and enhance its customer offering capabilities,” said Tianning Xiang, a partner at global law firm Clifford Chance, which advised Busy Ming on its Hong Kong IPO.

Goldman Sachs and Huatai International were joint sponsors of the IPO. REUTERS