SEA firms test Hong Kong’s IPO comeback

Hong Kong IPO listings have boomed in 2025. It’s a surge that Southeast Asian firms have largely sat out – until now.

Four more companies from the region are set to go public in Hong Kong, says Johnson Chui, head of issuer services at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX), though he declined to name them.

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If the listings materialize, it would mark a high point since 2020, when five Southeast Asian construction and infrastructure firms listed in Hong Kong. Between 2021 and 2024, there were only three Southeast Asian IPOs in the city, when there had been 65 in the five years prior.

A combination of the pandemic and unfavorable macroeconomic conditions drove this decline, though it seems Southeast Asian firms are cautiously returning to HKEX drawn by better market conditions and access to Chinese investors. Still, Wall Street and home markets hold sway.

By the numbers

The new listings could include Singapore-headquartered fast-fashion giant Shein. In July, it filed for an IPO on HKEX after its plans to debut in New York and London were scuppered by regulatory pressures.

In the first half of 2025, three Southeast Asian companies went public on HKEX: Indonesia-based Nanshan Aluminium, Singapore biotech firm Mirxes, and Thai coconut water maker IFBH. These listings account for 7% of the 43 IPOs on the bourse so far this year, marking a sharp jump from the 29 in the same period in 2024 and the 27 in H1 2023.

See also: Hong Kong replaces Wall Street as China’s IPO hotspot

In the first half of 2025, the HKEX recorded 210 IPOs and cross-listings, raising US$49.2 billion – more than 9x the US$5.3 billion raised a year ago, based on data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

“Most of the success we’ve seen in the capital markets in Hong Kong has been from Chinese companies,” says Jon Withaar, head of Asia special situations at Pictet Asset Management.

The fundraising surge was led by the 175 dual-listed companies that also trade on the mainland’s A-shares market. For these firms, Hong Kong’s deep capital markets and flexible currency make it easier to raise and move money.

The Chinese dream

Dreams of expanding into China have pushed some Southeast Asian companies to list in Hong Kong.

Not only does this increase a firm’s visibility to investors in China, Hong Kong’s efforts to attract listings from key sectors could also draw the attention of companies from the mainland.

Tech firms from China are also increasingly flocking to the HKEX, as the bourse offers pathways to lessen compliance burdens for applications within the tech sector.

Homecoming bias

Doubling up