Huatai International’s equities business held its own in the past year, despite the Hong Kong market being in the doldrums and seeing a sharp fall in deal activity. Huatai managed to bag the fourth place among Chinese securities houses on the Hong Kong ECM bookrunning league table during Euromoney’s awards period, Dealogic data shows.
It also did so in style, running some landmark deals on the exchange. One such transaction was the $144 million IPO in October 2023 of Tian Tu Capital – the first Chinese private equity venture capital firm to list on the bourse. In another instance, in September 2023, it led the HK$1.2 billion ($153.8 million) listing of Beijing Fourth Paradigm Technology, the first offshore IPO of a Chinese artificial intelligence company last year.
Huatai’s cross-border abilities also came to the fore in the handful of Switzerland and London sales of global depositary receipts (GDR). The bank led 2023’s first GDR deal, a $173 million Swiss outing for Zhejiang Hangke Technology, in addition to similar transactions for Fangda Carbon New Material ($190 million) and Zhejiang Supcon Technology ($565 million), as well as a London Connect deal for Zhejiang Yongtai Technology ($70 million). The idea is to keep its nose firmly to the ground and continue gathering steam in the year ahead.