IF Insights: The real story behind Hong Kong’s piping-hot IPO machine

Hong Kong’s stock exchange has spent 2026 doing something it had not managed since before the pandemic, which is pulling large companies back to its listing hall in volume.

Companies raised HKUSD 210.2 billion, roughly USD 26.8 billion, through initial public offerings (IPOs) in the first six months of the year. That is 92% more than the same period in 2025, spread across 87 new listings, close to double the number a year earlier. It is the strongest first half in five years on both measures.

The city finished second in the global fundraising table, behind Nasdaq, which was carried by SpaceX and a run of artificial intelligence (AI) flotations.

Accountancy firms count the deals slightly differently depending on whether transfers and small listings are stripped out, so you will see figures of 84, 85 or 87 listings in the same period. The direction is not in dispute.

What makes 2026 unusual is not the money already raised. It is how many companies are still waiting.

Two engines are doing most of the work
The first is the A+H listing, in which a company already quoted in Shanghai or Shenzhen sells a second tranche of shares in Hong Kong. Some 24 of of these were completed in the first half of 2026.

That single half year total beat the whole of 2025, which itself set a record. These deals are far bigger than the average Hong Kong flotation, which is why they dominate the fundraising totals.

The second engine is Chapter 18C, the specialist technology route the exchange introduced in 2023 for companies that are commercialising deep technology and may not meet conventional profit tests.

Thirteen such companies listed in the first half of this year, against eight in the previous three years put together. Between them, A+H and specialist technology deals accounted for more than 70% of everything raised.

Behind both is a policy push. Beijing has been encouraging mainland companies to raise foreign currency offshore, and Hong Kong is the venue that does not carry American political risk.

The structure suits issuers too. A Shenzhen quote gives access to a deep retail investor base at home, while an H share line brings in global institutions.

The deals that set the tone
The year’s defining transaction came on July 30, when Zhongji Innolight, a Chinese maker of the optical transceivers that move data around AI data centres, raised HKUSD 53.4 billion, about USD 6.81 billion. That is Hong Kong’s largest share sale since Alibaba’s secondary listing in 2019 and the second largest in Asia this year.

The book was heavily subscribed. Retail orders came in at 16.8 times the shares available and the international tranche at 9.7 times, with more than 30 cornerstone investors including BlackRock, Temasek and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

Even so, the company priced at HKUSD 980, below the HKUSD 1,010 maximum it had marketed, and the shares fell as much as 10% on the first morning before closing around 4% down. A global wobble in AI shares had begun during the bookbuild, and Innolight’s Shenzhen line fell harder than its Hong Kong one.

Before that, Luxshare Precision had raised about USD 3.1 billion on 6 July, briefly the year’s largest. Earlier in the year the Shanghai AI developer MiniMax raised HKUSD 4.8 billion, and Biren Technology opened the year’s listing calendar on January 2.

The queue is at a record and it is jammed
As at 26 June, 443 listing applications had been publicly filed, a 52% increase since the start of the year. Among them were 116 A+H candidates and 145 technology companies. Advisers put the total number of companies waiting at more than 430, the fullest pipeline the exchange has handled since at least 2021.

The bottleneck sits on the mainland side. Since March 2023, a Chinese company cannot be scheduled for a Hong Kong listing hearing until the China Securities Regulatory Commission has cleared its offshore filing. Applications lapse after six months, so a slow clearance forces the company to refresh its accounts and start again.

In early July, more than 30 applicants were within a fortnight of that deadline, including the supermarket chain Qiandama and the battery maker Eve Energy.

Approval is also selective. Advisers say sectors aligned with national priorities, meaning large AI models, robotics, semiconductors and biotech, move through faster than consumer names.

One Hong Kong accountancy firm reported that of 12 clients that filed this year, only two had secured the mainland nod. A lapsed application is not a rejection, and many eventual listings have lapsed at least once, but it does mean the headline queue overstates how much can realistically price this year.

The rulebook was rewritten in July
On July 24 the exchange published the conclusions of the first phase of its listing framework competitiveness review, and the rule changes took effect the same day.

The most significant change lowers the market capitalisation threshold for companies with weighted voting rights, or dual class shares, to HKUSD 20 billion from HKUSD 40 billion, and allows a voting ratio of up to 20 to 1 for the largest applicants rather than the previous cap of 10 to 1.

That brings Hong Kong closer to American practice, which is where founder led technology companies have historically gone to keep control.

The exchange also extended confidential filing to every applicant, not just a subset, eased the path for companies already listed overseas to add a Hong Kong line, and broadened acceptance of US accounting standards.

Companies with live applications may switch into the new chapters without withdrawing and refiling. A second consultation covering the growth board, the blank cheque company regime and continuing obligations is promised later.

Alongside the rule changes, the exchange has been trying to widen the geography of its issuer base.

It now recognises 20 overseas exchanges for secondary listing purposes, having added Thailand most recently, and runs a pre application guidance channel for technology companies. Chief executive Bonnie Chan said in April that more than 10 international companies were somewhere in the pipeline.

That is a small number set against 443 filings, and almost all of this year’s money has come from mainland issuers, which accounted for close to 99% of proceeds in the first half. Diversifying away from that concentration remains the exchange’s hardest unfinished job.

What happens next
The test of the second half is Shein. The fast fashion group, founded in China and headquartered in Singapore, cleared its mainland filing on 10 July and passed its Hong Kong listing hearing days later, after earlier attempts to float in New York and London stalled.

It is targeting a valuation of USD 30 billion to USD 40 billion and could launch from mid August, with some prospective cornerstone investors pushing for closer to USD 30 billion.

That is a severe reset. Private rounds valued Shein at USD 98.2 billion in 2022 and USD 64 billion by 2024. Its draft prospectus showed a USD 99 million quarterly loss, caused partly by a one off accounting charge of USD 328 million and partly by weaker sales after Washington scrapped the duty exemption on low value parcels. One person close to the deal said the company is pricing to support the shares afterwards rather than to maximise the headline number.

Forecasts for the full year cluster around HKUSD 300 billion to HKUSD 320 billion and roughly 160 listings, which would leave Hong Kong in the global top three.

The risks are visible enough. Appetite for AI hardware has cooled since June, when Washington added Innolight to a list of companies suspected of military links, a designation the company rejects.

Mainland mega deals such as CXMT’s USD 8.6 billion Shanghai flotation are pulling liquidity in a different direction. And a market this dependent on two sectors will feel any sentiment shift quickly.

For now, though, the American route for Chinese issuers is all but shut. Only one Chinese company raised money on a US exchange in the first half of this year, taking in USD 12 million, against 39 companies and USD 886 million a year earlier. That flow has to go somewhere, and it is going to Hong Kong.