China bubble tea chain Mixue pops 47% on debut as Hong Kong IPO volumes rebound

By Scott Murdoch, Sophie Yu and Jiaxing Li

SYDNEY (Reuters) -Shares of China's largest bubble beverage and drinks chain, Mixue Group, jumped much than 47% successful their debut connected the Hong Kong Stock Exchange connected Monday, with caller listings successful the metropolis signaling their strongest commencement to a twelvemonth since 2021.

Mixue - known for its inexpensive drinks and red-cloaked Snow King mascot - raised $444 cardinal successful an archetypal nationalist offering by selling 17 cardinal shares successful the woody astatine a fixed terms of HK$202.5 each.

The shares roseate arsenic precocious arsenic HK$298 successful their archetypal time of trading aft opening astatine HK$262 each. The gains outpaced a 1% emergence successful Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index.

The stellar commencement reinforces hopes for a beardown twelvemonth successful caller equity issuances by Chinese companies successful Hong Kong, arsenic Beijing steps up enactment for its backstage enterprises to revive a slowing system amid heightened geopolitical tensions.

The rebound successful some retail and organization capitalist sentiment is important for the fiscal hub's listings pipeline, with CATL, which hopes to rise astatine slightest $5 billion, and Chery Automobile aiming to motorboat offerings aboriginal this year.

Mixue's summation came arsenic its large bubble beverage rivals were sold off, with Sichuan Baicha Baidao down astir 7% and Guming down 1.7% connected Monday.

Retail investors successful the IPO subscribed for 5,258 times much shares than were connected connection successful that tranche, according to Mixue's filings, making it 1 of Hong Kong's astir fashionable IPOs.

The retail subscription complaint was conscionable beneath Bloks Group, whose retail publication was 6,000 times oversubscribed, a record, successful its January IPO.

The organization tranche of the woody was 35 times covered, the filings showed.

There has been $1.44 cardinal worthy of IPOs successful Hong Kong twelvemonth to date, making it the champion commencement to a twelvemonth since 2021, according to Dealogic data. So acold successful 2025, IPO debutantes person recorded an 11.7% summation connected mean connected their archetypal time of trade, good up connected the 7.6% summation successful 2024, the information showed.

IPO ATTRACTS STRONG RETAIL INTEREST

Mixue's precocious illustration among Chinese consumers for selling drinks for arsenic inexpensive arsenic 6 yuan ($0.82) and a deficiency of IPOs successful Hong Kong drove request for the banal from retail investors, advisors connected the woody said.

"Many Chinese beverage concatenation stocks had dismal debuts and Mixue's 30% positive leap is simply a pleasant astonishment to investors," said George Au, Phillip Securities lawman income director.

"Some clients were truthful enthusiastic they brought their full families to unfastened accounts conscionable to enactment successful this IPO."

Hong Kong's shortened IPO colony play has prompted immoderate of the city's brokerages to connection highly reduced borderline loans to bargain into caller stock sales, pushing up retail involvement successful offerings similar Mixue.