Finance & economics | Offering little

Can China reclaim its IPO crown?

Hong Kong is hot. The mainland very much is not

An aerial photo shows a view of Hong Kong Island and Victoria Harbour at sunset.
Photograph: Getty Images
|Shanghai|4 min read

One after another, blockbuster Chinese listings are coming to Hong Kong. In May Hengrui Pharmaceuticals, a drug manufacturer, and CATL, a battery-maker, sold $5.3bn-worth of shares between them. Seres, which makes electric vehicles, hopes to raise $2bn in the coming weeks. Shein, a fast-fashion firm, may abandon plans for an offering in London for one in Hong Kong. All told, in April more than 130 applications were under consideration by the local exchange, up from fewer than 60 at the start of 2024. On current trends, the city will be the world’s largest stock-debut venue this year.

Explore more

This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “China’s IPO contest”

From the June 21st 2025 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition
A man looks at an advertisement for the Nippon Individual Savings Account (NISA) displayed at a branch of Nomura Securities Co., a unit of Nomura Holdings Inc., in the Kichijoji area of Tokyo, Japan.

Japan has been hit by investing fever

Will old folk catch the bug?

llustration of a silhouetted figure seated at a keyboard, facing a large rearview mirror displaying a fluctuating line graph against a grid background, with a purple backdrop

Don’t invest through the rearview mirror

Markets are supposed to look forward; plenty of investors look back instead


Illustration of a person in a blue suit with a red tie, seated at a red table with hands clasped together. In front of the person are colored shipping containers

Trump’s trade deals try a creative way to hobble China

To appease the world’s biggest market, countries must anger the world’s biggest trader


The great dealmaker is conspicuously short of trade deals

Donald Trump issues threats—and grants deadline extensions

Struggling with the trade war? Amateur football might help

Jiangsu’s party cadres find success with a bizarre idea

How America’s economy is dodging disaster

It is astonishingly dynamic, even under the weight of tariffs