HONG KONG: Shares of Jingdong Industrials Inc, a unit of Chinese online retailer JD.com, opened down 7.8% in their Hong Kong Stock Exchange debut on Thursday, after the company raised HK$2.98 billion ($383.08 million) in a listing.
Shares of the industrial supply chain technology and services provider opened at HK$13 each, compared to the offer price of HK$14.10. That lagged a 0.7% rise in the benchmark Hang Seng Index.
The stock price rose slightly in the morning session but was still trading below the IPO price at 0220 GMT.
The long-awaited IPO comes as U.S. market volatility has weighed on Hong Kong listings, with investor caution rising after a blockbuster year that crowned the city as the world's top listing venue by deal volume.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index is up 28% this year, outperforming U.S. benchmarks, though it has fallen by about 4% so far in the fourth quarter, LSEG data showed.
The IPO of Jingdong Industrials, also known as JDi, fell short of its initial target of $500 million, sources have said. Its valuation in the offering - about $5 billion based on Reuters calculations - was lower than its $6.7 billion valuation in a 2023 pre-IPO funding round.
JDi said it planned to use about 35% of the IPO's proceeds to enhance its supply chain over the next two to three years. Another 25% of the funds will be spent on expanding the JDi business across different locations.
Bank of America, UBS, Haitong International and Goldman Sachs were sponsors of JDi's IPO. The institutional tranche of the offering was significantly oversubscribed with commitments from global long-only funds and fundamental investors, according to a term sheet seen by Reuters. - Reuters
