Prime Highlights
- Zhongji Innolight seeks to raise at least $8 billion in its Hong Kong listing.
- The deal marks Hong Kong’s largest share sale in nearly seven years.
Key Facts
- Zhongji Innolight is a Chinese manufacturer of optical transceivers used in data centers and AI systems.
- Hong Kong new listings have raised $33.8 billion this year, more than double last year’s total.
Background
China’s Zhongji Innolight, a manufacturer of optical transceivers, will launch a Hong Kong listing this week, aiming to raise at least $8 billion, according to sources with direct knowledge of the matter.
The company plans to sell shares at a price of up to HK$1,010, or roughly $128.81 each, two sources said. This would mark a 13.2% discount to the company’s Shenzhen-listed stock’s recent closing price. Because the material was private, the sources talked under the condition of anonymity. A request for comment was not immediately answered by Zhongji Innolight.
The offering will be Hong Kong’s largest share sale in nearly seven years, since Alibaba Group’s $12.9 billion listing in 2019. It is also expected to be Asia’s second-largest listing this year, trailing only Chinese chipmaker CXMT Corp’s $8.6 billion initial public offering on Shanghai’s STAR market earlier this month.
Zhongji makes optical transceivers, small devices that convert electrical signals into light signals and back again. These devices help move large volumes of data through fibre-optic cables and are widely used in data centers, cloud networks and AI computing systems.
Hong Kong new listings have raised $33.8 billion so far this year, more than double the $16.4 billion raised during the same period last year, according to LSEG data.
The listing comes as Chinese technology companies rush to fund expansion in artificial intelligence infrastructure, as China and the United States compete to build faster data centers and computing networks.