Meituan to raise HKD 32.6 billion on its HKEx debut tomorrow

Meituan-Dianping, one of China’s super apps, has announced today that it will debut at  HKD$69 apiece for its public offering on the HKEx on Thursday.

Alongside the onslaught of Alibaba’s fight in China’s food delivery space and its own burgeoning losses, Meituan has priced its opening share price at the lower end of the price spectrum, bringing the total amount raised about US$2 million short of the initial target. Based on the current opening price,  it is set to raise as much as HKD$ 32.6 billion (US$4.2 billion) from the Hong Kong bourse.

Takeaways

• Qutoutiao’s miracle public debut and Pinduoduo’s day-one surge in share prices have bucked the trends of less-than-stellar IPO debut performance of these Chinese tech companies. It would be noteworthy to see if this low-end pricing would lead to a  boost on Meituan’s IPO debut.
• Meituan’s IPO debut success is pivotal as the cash-strapped giant is up for a fiercer battle in its domestic food delivery market after the merger of Ele.me and Koubei. The public market funding would be the much-needed ammunition to support Meituan in its uphill battle with Alibaba-bcked Ele.me.

Editor: Ben Jiang