Chinese snack retailer Busy Ming surges 69% in Hong Kong debut

About this update from Mao Geping Cosmetics Co., Ltd. Class H

By Yantoultra Ngui and Donny Kwok Busy Ming Group (1768.HK) shares jumped 69% in their Hong Kong trading debut on Wednesday, after the Chinese snack and beverage retailer raised HK$3.67 billion ($470 million) in an initial public offering.The shares opened at HK$445 each, 88.1% higher than their offer price of HK$236.60, before closing at HK$400, giving Busy Ming a market capitalisation of around HK$86.2 billion ($11 billion). The opening-day surge made Busy Ming the fifth-strongest debut on record among Hong Kong retail and consumer products IPOs of at least $100 million, according to Dealogic, trailing Smoore International HKEX:6969, Pop Mart HKEX:9992, Mao Geping HKEX:1318 and Laopu Gold HKEX:6181. Busy Ming sold 15.5 million shares in the IPO at the top end of a marketed range, versus an initially offered 14.1 million shares. The retail portion of the sale was nearly 1,900 times oversubscribed while the institutional portion was 44.44 times."Busy Ming had a strong performance on its first day of listing today," said Kenny Ng, securities strategist at China Everbright Securities International. "I believe the primary reasons for the stock's popularity during the subscription process and the listing lie in Busy Ming's past record of rapid growth." The company plans to use IPO proceeds for supply-chain improvement and product development, as well as to upgrade its store network and support franchisees.The listing comes as Hong Kong attracts a steady stream of Chinese consumer, food and technology firms. Recent offerings and upcoming debuts include beverage maker Eastroc SSE:605499, pork producer Muyuan Foods SZSE:002714, and chipmakers Montage Technology SSE:688008 and Axera Semiconductor.CHINA'S BIGGEST SNACK RETAILERBusy Ming was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Changsha in Hunan province. It described itself in its IPO prospectus as China's largest snack and beverage chain retailer by sales value in 2024, citing consultancy Frost & Sullivan. Busy Ming runs stores under the "Busy for You" and "Super Ming" brands, selling products such as biscuits, instant meals and drinks through a mainly franchised retail model.It prices products about 25% below the average of comparable supermarket offerings, Frost & Sullivan said in the prospectus.At September-end, it had 19,517 stores across 28 provinces, about 59% of which were in smaller towns and counties,...

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