Tea shop chain brews up HK$2.5bn IPO
Mainland tea shop chain Sichuan Baicha Baidao Industrial aims to raise HK$2.5 billion in a Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO), in the city's largest new-share sale of 2024, regulatory filings showed on Monday. The company is selling 147.7 million shares at HK$17.50 each, which represents about 10 percent of its total shares, the filings showed. An extra 22.1 million shares could be sold through a so-called greenshoe option. That would see the total number of shares increase to 169.9 million, to raise almost HK$3 billion. The shares will start trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on April 23. Baicha Baidao operates ChaPanda stores which sell a range of fruit tea drinks primarily to younger customers, the company said in its IPO prospectus. Hong Kong IPO volume is at its lowest level in more than a decade with new-share sales raising US$507 million in the first quarter of this year, down nearly 29 percent from US$710 million from the same time last year, LSEG data showed. (Reuters)