Viva extends Hong Kong biotech fever in city's hottest IPO this year

[HONG KONG] Viva Biotech Holdings bucked a decline across Asia on its trading debut following Hong Kong's most popular initial public offering (IPO) this year.

The Shanghai-based company lured retail investors with orders for about 107 times the shares initially available to them, the highest ratio among 2019 offerings above US$100 million in the city, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The institutional tranche of the IPO was "significantly oversubscribed", Viva said in a filing, without providing more details.

Viva Biotech raised US$194 million selling shares at HK$4.41 (S$0.77) apiece, the top end of a marketed range. The sale was completed last week before an escalation of China-US trade tensions that tanked global equities market.

Shares of Viva Biotech rose 2.3 per cent to HK$4.51 as of 11:04am in Hong Kong, outperforming the 1.7 per cent drop in the benchmark Hang Seng Index. The stock climbed as much as 5.9 per cent earlier.

Another biotech firm CanSino Biologics attracted orders for 91 times its initial retail tranche in March, making it Hong Kong's second hottest IPO of above US$100 million this year. The vaccine developer surged 58 per cent on its debut and has gained more than 68 per cent since the offering.

BLOOMBERG