Hong Kong could regain its title as the world’s largest IPO (initial public offering) platform this year for the first time since 2019, the Wall Street Journal reported.

According to Dealogic, 41 IPOs have been held in Hong Kong since the beginning of this year. The total volume of initial public offerings amounted to $13.66 billion, which already exceeds the amount for the whole of 2024.

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange is the leader in IPO volume in the first half of the year, with Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) taking second and third places, respectively.

In the past few years, the activity of initial public offerings on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange has been low due to the general weakening of risk appetite after the COVID-19 pandemic and high interest rates. In 2023, the IPO volume on the exchange amounted to just $5.9 billion. dollars, according to data from the stock exchange operator Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd. (HKEx).

The current boom is due, in particular, to the activation of offerings by Chinese companies. Moreover, the tension in relations between the US and the PRC does not limit this activity. On the contrary, Hong Kong has become a preferred destination for Chinese companies, in particular due to concerns that the administration of US President Donald Trump may demand delisting from US exchanges, notes the Wall Street Journal.

In addition, Hong Kong plays a key role in Beijing's attempts to revive capital markets and make them more accessible to investors. Investor optimism is also supported by measures to stimulate the economy introduced by the PRC authorities.

An additional catalyst for the growth of IPO activity in Hong Kong was the emergence of the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, which made global investors rethink their ideas about China's potential in the field of innovation, the newspaper writes. І BGNES