Credit Suisse’s ability to raise funds for technology companies across markets stood out from the competition in a year when China’s private-sector champions produced some of the world’s most exciting deals.
Credit Suisse added to its reputation as a technology sector powerhouse again during IFR’s review period, working on 14 of the 18 IPOs from the sector.
“Credit Suisse has always been strong in the tech sector, and that competitive strength has put us in the leading position on many of the transactions,” said Johnson Chui, head of ECM for Asia Pacific at Credit Suisse.
Notably, Credit Suisse played a key role in bringing Chinese tech companies to the Hong Kong market, which has historically struggled to compete with the US for technology listings.
The Swiss bank was one of the sponsors on the HK$4.88bn (US$626m) listing of selfie-editing app-maker Meitu in December 2016. At the time, the deal was the largest technology IPO in Hong Kong since October 2007.
The loss-making Chinese company barely stayed above its IPO price in the first few months of trading, but then soared 80% in less than a month after the stock was added to the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect trading link on March 6.
The unexpected pop set the stage for higher-profile deals to come. Credit Suisse was again one of the sponsors of the HK$13.7bn IPO of ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance, the largest China fintech IPO on record. The online-only insurer made a strong debut on September 28 with a 9.2% gain and climbed to a record high of HK$97.8 on October 9, 64% above the IPO price.
Credit Suisse secured another sponsor role on the HK$9.6bn IPO of Tencent unit China Literature, the second most popular Hong Kong IPO in history by retail subscriptions. Shares of the online publisher doubled on the first trading day.
The bank wrapped up a busy year in the Hong Kong IPO market with a HK$6.8bn listing of Chinese online car-retailing and financing platform Yixin Group.
Outside Hong Kong, Credit Suisse continued to bring Chinese issuers to the US. During the review period, it arranged the IPOs of online microlender Qudian, logistics firm Best, search engine Sogou and peer-to-peer lender Ppdai.
The bank was also exceptionally strong in the equity-linked segment. It was one of the two bookrunners for the US$900m convertible bond of China’s leading social media platform Weibo in October.
In China’s domestic market, Credit Suisse Founder Securities, a joint venture between Credit Suisse and China’s Founder Securities, jointly arranged the Rmb2.8bn (US$425m) Shanghai IPO of Central China Securities. It also arranged a Rmb1.03bn Shanghai IPO of Jiangsu Dongzhu Landscape and a Rmb500m exchangeable bond offering of Tianshui Huatian Microelectronics.
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