Bloomberg reports that “China has been by far the biggest IPO market in the world since the beginning of the year, far exceeding New York” with five IPOs of above US$1 billion since the start of 2022, and one more on the way.

That compares with just one large IPO in New York and Hong Kong, and none in London. That’s a total of U$57.8 billion since January which is the largest ever over a similar period.

With a nationwide focus on building up domestic home-grown capabilities, many new listings are arising from the tech sector but, as Bloomberg points out, “it also reflects decoupling, because many of the companies going to market in Shanghai have had to de-list from the US markets”.

But whatever the reason, it’s driving up share values: “better performance of newly traded stocks has also been a draw for listing hopefuls. Shares of mainland IPOs are up by an average 43% this year over their listing price, versus the 13% drop seen in Hong Kong…. flops happen, but they’re rare”.

By: David Thomas, China Expert, ChinaInvest