TikTok-rival Kuaishou has roughest ride among big global IPOs

[HONG KONG] The three biggest money losers among large listings in 2021 are all Chinese, thanks to the country's widening tech crackdown.

Investors who bought Kuaishou Technology after the TikTok rival went public in Hong Kong have notched the widest peak-to-trough slump among global initial public offerings this year.

The Chinese video app is down more than 80 per cent since it hit a Feb 17 peak less than two weeks after it raised US$5.4 billion in Hong Kong's largest float in 2021. That is the largest plunge from a high among the 36 companies that raised more than US$1.5 billion worldwide in 2021 from IPOs, Bloomberg data show.

Kuaishou's slump illustrates the fizzling appetite for offshore-listed China shares since Beijing began clamping down on a wide swath of private firms.

The two other top money-losers are also Chinese: New York-listed DiDi Global, which was hit by a data security probe in July, has fallen 55 per cent while video-app firm Bilibili is down by half from peaks touched this year.

Meanwhile, Robinhood Markets, the popular trading app that listed just over two months ago, ranks seventh, having tumbled 40 per cent from its August peak.

BLOOMBERG