Topsports Shares Surge on Hong Kong Debut -- Update

   By Martin Mou 
 

Chinese sportswear retailer Topsports International Holdings Ltd. (6110.HK) got off to a strong start in its Hong Kong debut, rising nearly 12% in a reflection of investors' appetite for consumer-related stocks amid volatility in the city's stock market.

Shares in the distributor of brands such as Nike and Adidas opened flat on Thursday at their initial public offering price of 8.50 Hong Kong dollars (US$1.08) before surging within minutes of trading to HK$9.50.

Topsports, the sportswear unit of formerly listed footwear retailer Belle International Holdings Ltd., had priced its shares near the lower end of its indicative HK$8.30-HK$10.10 range. The IPO raised HK$7.91 billion.

Topsports' debut reflects that consumer-related stocks are in high demand as they offer assured growth with high price-to-earnings ratios.

When Budweiser Brewing Co. APAC Ltd. (1876.HK) made its Hong Kong debut on Sept. 30, its shares rose as much as 6.7% from its IPO price of HK$27.00. Shares in the beer company are currently at HK$31.95.

Budweiser, a unit of the world's largest brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev SA (ABI.BT) raised US$5 billion in its IPO, making it the biggest such offering in Hong Kong so far this year and the second-largest worldwide.

At mid-day, Topsports shares were trading up 9.4% at HK$9.30, pushing the retailer's market capitalization up to HK$57.67 billion from HK$47.93 billion at the start of trading.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and CICC advised Topsports on the IPO.

Write to Martin Mou at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 10, 2019 00:58 ET (04:58 GMT)

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