Hi there, it’s Robin.
This week has been a busy IPO week for the Chinese unicorns.
First up, Xiaomi’s 4-day IPO sales did not meet the much-hyped expectations as one of the largest IPO over the past two years at least. There were mixed responses from both Hong Kong retail investors and institutional investors alike. Still, this rare company that does software, internet services, and even e-commerce managed to register an oversubscription rate of 8.5 times at the end (a far cry from other high stakes IPO with the likes of ZhongAn Online Property & Casualty Insurance and Chinese Literature).
Undeterred, the Hong Kong bourse welcomed another filing from another Chinese unicorn Meituan-Dianping, as it hopped on to the bandwagon, joining the already heated IPO race at the Hong Kong Exchange this week.
In an odd similarity, in the same week, China Renaissance, the Chinese boutique investment bank behind the Meituan-Dianping merger deal, also followed suit alongside the Hong Kong IPO party. The purpose of this investment bank – was to grow together, as quickly, with the burgeoning Chinese unicorns in China so as to build the necessary ammunition to continue to serve the technology fund ecosystem.
As if this is not ‘hot’ enough, at the end of the week, Tencent-backed Pinduoduo too has revealed its intentions to join the IPO ranks as early as next week.
As more Chinese unicorns find themselves competing in the deep capital markets, the tech scene in Southeast Asia is also gaining further competitive traction.
Even as Indonesia-based Go-Jek started to prepare to stock up on its ammunition for an all-out war with Grab, Singapore-headquartered Zilingo is also rumored to go for yet another fundraising, raising the stakes in an increasingly saturated e-commerce sector in the region.
The fight for being the ‘super app’ in Southeast Asia between Go-Jek and Uber – the largest region of Asia from the east of India to the south of China – and the ever-intensifying battle for the e-commerce market amongst new players like Zilingo with the older players such as Lazada, Shopee, and Zalora look only to be escalating, offering no hint of any temporary respite.
Read on to find out more interesting stories from last week, and feel free to tip us if you have news clue or you just want to talk with us, email us at [email protected] and we’re looking forward to hearing from you.
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