ECM Weekly (2 March 2019) - Futu, Tiger Brokers, China Risun, China Tobacco, Zhejiang New Century

ECM activity seems to be picking up as we get more information on upcoming large IPOs in Hong Kong and the US.

Starting with Hong Kong, there are a handful of small ongoing IPOs such as Yincheng International Holdings (1902 HK), China Risun (1907 HK), and Zhejiang New Century Hotel Management Group (1158 HK). Yincheng, a small and highly levered property developer, will list next week on the 7th of March.

But, the upcoming IPOs are the ones that seem to be more exciting with the HKEX filing of ESR Cayman's draft prospectus. The company is a logistics real estate developer backed by Warburg Pincus and was said to be seeking US$1.5bn in its IPO. There are also Global Switch and OneConnect which seemed to be one step closer to their IPO.

In the US, we are finally getting approvals after the government shutdown starting with the Tencent-backed Futu Holdings Ltd (FHL US) launching its IPO and it will be listing on the 8th of March.

Jumping on the broker IPO bandwagon, Jim Rogers-backed Up Fintech (TIGR US) has also filed with the SEC. Sumeet Singh had already compared the two companies in his note, Futu Holdings IPO Quick Note - Comparison with Tiger Brokers - Same Market, Different Economics.

There are also news reports that Luckin Coffee, a Starbucks competitor in China, has already tapped three banks for its US IPO.