Hong Kong's financial market, after rising 6.3 percent within the first two weeks of September, is buzzing with activity as companies from Anheuser-Busch InBev SA's Asian unit to Megvii Technology Ltd. are collectively targeting to raise $10 billion selling shares before 2019 ends.
Notable is the timing of these gains because it came when China's markets were being closed for the Mid-Autumn Festival.
There is no southbound traffic which becomes roughly a tenth of the main board turnover on the Stock Connect.
Analysts predict that when the week following this rise starts, there will be more upward momentum in the index.
Hence, now, companies are lining up for Hong Kong's IPO.
ESR Cayman, a logistics real estate developer and world's largest brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev will both revive public offerings that they put on hold over the summer.
The unit of AB InBev failed to get sufficient demand for its $9.8 billion sales in what would have been the world's biggest IPO in mid-July.
Carol Zhong, Julia Fioretti, Jinshan Hong and Crystal Tse of Bloomberg News says now, the company wants a $5 billion offering and wants to list by the end of September.
AB InBev is working to list without its Australian operations that it agreed to sell to Asahi Group Holdings Ltd. for $11.3 billion.
Even at just $5 billion, AB Inbev will have the largest IPO in Hong Kong this year followed by Warburg Pincus-backed warehouse investment platform ESR.
If ESR's plans remain the same, it would put the company as the second biggest in Hong Kong listing in 2019 at $1.24 billion.
Likewise, the consumer finance lender Home Credit which has China as its biggest market has a planned US$1 billion listing in Hong Kong at the latter part of the year.
These listings could drum up Hong Kong's stock exchange.
John Woods, Credit Suisse's chief investment officer for Asia-Pacific, is positive on this.
Woods said that there's "an improving window of opportunity in terms of investor sentiment and appetite" that he thinks "companies will seek to take advantage of" that could actually shape the rest of the year.
Marcella Chow, the global market strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, also shares the same view that increased Hong Kong IPO activity would be doing the market well.
Since August 13, Hong Kong's benchmark stocks gauge had been up 8% and became one of the best-performing indexes worldwide.
Making the race and lining up to list at Hong Kong's IPO are China-based artificial intelligence startup Megvii that is seeking $1 billion.
Retailer Topsports International Holdings Ltd. is also aiming for about $1 billion as well.
As Reuter reported last month, New York-traded Alibaba Group Holding Ltd may come in October and might seek to raise as much as $15 billion in a secondary listing.
