Hong Kong

BEXCELLENT Group Holdings, whose top tutor earns more than HK$40 million (S$7 million) a year, surged as much as 34 per cent on the first day of trading in Hong Kong.

The provider of tutoring services to Hong Kong secondary school students was so popular that individual investors placed orders for about 289 times the stock initially available to them. Bexcellent raised HK$135 million in its initial public offering (IPO) after pricing shares near the top of a marketed range. That's a contrast to Xiaomi Corp, which priced its IPO at the low end two weeks ago.

Shares of Bexcellent closed at HK$1.32 for a 22 per cent gain from their IPO price of HK$1.08.

Courses and products provided by Bexcellent's top five tutors accounted for more than half of its total revenue last year, the company said in its IPO prospectus. Remuneration payable to the top tutor was HK$43.4 million in the year through July 2017, the document showed. That's more than Bexcellent's net income of HK$34.1 million in the same period.

Rival firm Hong Kong Education International Investments Ltd ran a newspaper advertisement in 2015, offering to pay Bexcellent's top tutor Lam Yat Yan an annual salary of HK$85 million.

Shares of Hong Kong Education have plunged 97 per cent since their 2011 IPO, while Mr Lam has remained a tutor and shareholder of Bexcellent. BLOOMBERG