High-tech firms debuting in the city form a new ecosystem of stocks on top of the old guard of internet firms, says BNP Paribas
Published Mon, Jul 20, 2026 · 05:18 PM
[HONG KONG] A summer of mega deals is supercharging Hong Kong’s boom for stock market debuts, with the city poised to notch a six-year high for proceeds barely more than halfway through 2026.
Leading the wave is Zhongji Innolight, lining up a listing that could raise as much as US$8 billion, which would be Hong Kong’s biggest since Alibaba Group’s 2019 share sale.
The Chinese maker of optical transceivers essential to data centre buildout is gauging investor interest starting on Monday (Jul 20), before taking orders for the deal as soon as this week.
Fast fashion company Shein Global is also nearing a Hong Kong initial public offering to raise US$2 billion to US$3 billion.
After a recovery in 2025, Hong Kong share sales gathered momentum in 2026, boosted by Chinese companies along the artificial intelligence supply chain selling shares to finance expanding capacity as they compete with rivals around the world.
Innolight and Shein’s share sales alone would lift Hong Kong listing proceeds to almost US$46 billion so far in 2026 – marking the highest annual haul since 2020.
The first-time share sales also build on a fundraising spree this month, with AI model maker Zhipu raising US$4 billion from a share placement.
Other large deals in the pipeline could boost 2026’s total even further.
Eoptolink Technology, a Chinese maker of optical transceivers, has filed confidentially for a listing that could raise up to US$5 billion, people familiar with the matter have said.
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Companies including Chinese AI pioneer DeepSeek, agricultural-technology giant Syngenta Group, and Baidu’s chip unit Kunlunxin are also on the horizon.
The rush of deals shows “validation that there is still money to be deployed”, said Jason Lui, head of Asia-Pacific equity and derivative strategy at BNP Paribas.
The slate of high-tech companies debuting in Hong Kong is also creating a new ecosystem of stocks on top of the old guard of internet firms, Lui said.
“The most interesting transition over the past two years is that we have moved from a more internet- and financials- driven capital market into an AI, tech-hardware, high-end-manufacturing capital market as the local indices may take more time to reflect the shift in market capitalisation,” he added.
Shein, however, had been under pressure from shareholders to cut its valuation to about US$30 billion, having in the past been valued at more than three times that amount, people familiar with the matter said in 2025.
The company has faced competition from PDD Holdings-owned Temu in key markets such as the US and Europe, while tariff-induced price increases have dented consumer demand and regulators have scrutinised its operations.
The 100 companies that debuted and raised money in Hong Kong in 2026 have altogether seen a roughly 29 per cent gain from their listing prices on a weighted-average basis, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The average performance has shrunk from earlier in the year as investors started picking winners and losers and worries emerged that the AI spending spree is becoming harder to justify.
The post-listing performances also diverge across sectors.
Shares in newly-listed technology firms in Hong Kong in 2026 have more than doubled on a weighted-average basis, while those in the consumer sector rose about 3 per cent.
In the consumer space, investors would want to look for more signs of reflation in China, Lui said.
A record deflationary run ended last quarter, but the turnaround brings little comfort for an economy that slowed in the April to June period to the weakest pace since the last months of 2022.
“The fundraising window is still open, at least for the right type of company,” Lui said. BLOOMBERG