By Scott Murdoch and Donny Kwok
SYDNEY (Reuters) -Shares of China’s Duality Biotherapeutics more than doubled in their Hong Kong debut on Tuesday after the company raised $213 million in an initial public offering launched as financial markets reacted savagely to the U.S. tariffs package.
The shares reached HK$218 each, up from their HK$94.60 issue price, a gain of 130.4%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was up 0.3% in early trade on Tuesday.
Duality sold 17.33 million shares at the bottom of the HK$94.60 to HK$103.20 price range flagged when the share sale was launched.
Duality’s book-building started on April 7, when Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropped 13%, its worst one-day performance since 1997.
The company is working on the development of therapeutic drugs for cancer and autoimmune disease patients, according to its prospectus.
Despite the global financial market turmoil, Duality attracted strong interest from retail and institutional investors, its filing showed.
The retail portion of the IPO was covered 115 times, according to filings, while institutional investors applied for 13.5 times the number of shares on offer in that tranche.
(Reporting by Scott Murdoch in Sydney and Donny Kwok in Hong Kong; Editing by Tom Hogue and Jamie Freed)
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