Hong Kong’s stock market had a banner year for IPOs. The city’s stock exchange has become the top fundraising destination in Asia in 2025, and second in the world. Hundreds more share flotations are waiting in the pipeline, boosting the outlook for the beginning of 2026.
Investor enthusiasm for China’s homegrown companies is expected to lead the bull run. The first trading day of 2026 saw chipmaker Biren Technology surge as much as 100% on its debut. High-profile Chinese artificial intelligence startups Z.ai (Zhipu AI) and MiniMax followed suit the following week.
But questions are being raised about IPOs by companies with weaker credentials, and some companies that have listed recently in Hong Kong have seen their shares run out of steam.
There were 99 new stock listings on the Hong Kong Exchange main board last year, with a total valuation of USD 35 billion as of December 19, 2025, according to data from Dealogic, placing the city second in the world for new listing value, behind Nasdaq’s USD 52.3 billion. That is a jump of more than 200% in value compared with all of 2024.
The Asian financial hub’s bourse saw a rush of listings before year’s end. Seven companies waited in line to list in the week before the exchange closed for Christmas. Another six sounded the exchange’s gong, a ritual for market debutants, on December 30.
“Buoyed by this momentum and a backlog of potential IPO candidates, we expect this upward trend to continue into 2026,” said Paul Law, a KPMG partner in China. “In particular, the pace of AI-related listings is poised to accelerate as the technology matures and is adopted more widely across various industries.”
In recent months, however, Hong Kong’s red-hot stock market has cooled. Since November 2025, more debutants have fallen on their first day of trading, with some remaining below their listing prices. Autonomous driving company CiDi slid more than 13% on December 19, its first day of trading. Jingdong Industrials, a unit of JD.com focused on supply chain technology, has largely traded below its listing price since going public on December 11.
The lackluster performance among recent listings comes as regulators voice concern over what they see as the declining quality of IPO applications and a lack of due diligence.
Special listing regimes designed for technology companies that have yet to turn a profit have drawn a record number of applications. Transthera Sciences, a clinical-stage biotech company listed under a regime for biotech and pharmaceutical companies, soared more than 50 times versus its IPO price, sparking fears of overvaluation.
The Southbound Stock Connect program, which allows mainland investors to invest in the Hong Kong stock market, has seen average daily trading volume drop 19.4% in November 2025 compared with the previous month. Capital from mainland investors was a key driver of Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index this year. In December 2025, the Hang Seng Index fell 0.9%, and is down 6.1% from its October high.
The Hong Kong exchange mounted a major comeback in 2025. Previously, capital market activity had stalled following China’s tech crackdown in 2020 and the real estate crisis the following year. In 2025, by contrast, asset managers and hedge funds were increasingly visible in new listings, participating as cornerstone investors.
A July 2025 report from Goldman Sachs pointed out cornerstone investors’ subscriptions “have accounted for 42% of the total capital raised, with approximately two-thirds from foreign investors and one-third from domestic investors.”
Meanwhile, the market received a big boost from one type of listing: More than half of the listing value had been driven by “A-to-H listings,” in which companies listed in mainland China seek a secondary listing in Hong Kong.
Excluding such secondary listings, 78 companies raised a total USD 15.5 billion, compared with Nasdaq’s USD 51.3 billion and the New York Stock Exchange’s USD 25 billion, according to Dealogic data.
As of December 7, 2025, active applications for IPOs reached a record 316 in Hong Kong, 92 of which were A-to-H listing applications, according to KPMG. The company expects more than 100 A-to-H listing applications in the near future, potentially offering a robust start to 2026.
The listing process for such deals is simpler than first-time public offerings in terms of filing requirements and documentation. The city’s securities watchdogs, the Securities and Futures Commission and the Hong Kong exchange, have devised a fast-track system for A-to-H listings in which screening takes no more than 30 business days. To qualify for this streamlined system, companies must have a market capitalization of at least HKD 10 billion (USD 1.3 billion), according to the exchange.
Beijing has been encouraging companies looking to list overseas to prioritize the Hong Kong market by promising to shorten approval times. It has also tightened regulations for companies looking to list in the US, pushing some deals back to Hong Kong. Though not officially required by law, approvals by the China Securities Regulatory Commission are widely seen as necessary for Chinese companies before they can list overseas.
However, secondary and dual listings tend to pay lower offering fees to underwriters, as they are more similar to a follow-up share flotation than an IPO. One example is the Hong Kong listing of lithium battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), where underwriting fees were roughly 20 basis points, or 0.2% of the deal’s total value. Typically, companies seeking pays flat rate commissions ranging 2–4%, plus optional incentives between 1–2%. CATL was already listed on the mainland market when listed in Hong Kong.
This article first appeared on Nikkei Asia. It has been republished here as part of 36Kr’s ongoing partnership with Nikkei.