
Photo: VCG
The first offering on China’s new Nasdaq-style high-tech board attracted subscriptions to the stock from almost all of the individual investors who are registered to trade on the new board, pushing the allocation rate to less than 0.06%.
As of Thursday night, more than 2.7 million retail investors submitted subscriptions online for the shares of Suzhou HYC Technology Co. Ltd., a manufacturer of display and touch-testing equipment launching the first initial public offering on Shanghai’s new STAR Market.
Amid the retail investors’ frenzy, the company reallocated part of its offerings designated for institutional investors to retail investors. After the adjustment, Suzhou HYC offered 26.99 million shares in the allotment for institutional investors, or 70.1% of the total offering, and 11.46 million shares for retail investors. Shares offered offline to institutional investors were oversubscribed by 335 times.
The company is set to raise 973 million yuan ($141 million) through the offering, valuing the company at 9.7 billion yuan.
Suzhou HYC set its IPO price at 24.26 yuan ($3.50) a share, 41 times 2018 earnings after deduction of nonrecurring gains and losses — much higher than the prevailing price-to-earnings ratio of 23 on China’s mainland stock exchanges.
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