CX Briefing: Industrial-Robot Maker Debuts in Hot Hong Kong Market

A rundown of the news making headlines in and around China:

Hot robotic debut: Industrial-robot maker Beijing Geekplus Technology Co. Ltd. debuted on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Wednesday, after raising HK$2.7 billion ($345 million) in one of the city’s hottest IPOs of the year. The firm sold 161.4 million shares at HK$16.80 apiece, with the international and retail investors oversubscribing their portions more than 30 times and 133 times, respectively. Its stock suffered a slight dip in its first day of trading before closing up more than 5% at a market value of some HK$18.3 billion. Geekplus provides intelligent logistics robots to clients including Siemens AG, Toyota Motor Corp. and Walmart Inc. across 40 countries. Geekplus is just the first of several Chinese industrial robot companies that are capitalizing on the revival of Hong Kong’s IPO market, including Standard Robotics (Wuxi) Co. Ltd. and RobotPhoenix Intelligent Technology Co. Ltd. The niche sector is not as cutting-edge as embodied intelligence but is being supported by market demand, investors said.