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cailianshe news, september 17 (editor: feng yi)today, a-share home appliance giant midea group (00300.hk; 000333.sz) was officially listed on the hong kong stock exchange, completing a+h listing.

as of press time, midea group's hong kong stocks were trading at hk$59.05 per share, up nearly 8% from the issue price of hk$54.8. the intraday high reached nearly 10%.

according to the announcement, midea group's hong kong ipo received 5.31 times the subscription in the public offering stage, with 28.2978 million shares on public offering. the final number of shares on international offering was approximately 538 million shares, equivalent to 95% of the total number of shares on offer.

it is worth noting that during the ipo period, midea group attracted the market's attention with its huge financing scale.

based on the final issue price of hk$54.8 and the issue size of 566 million shares, midea group's total financing for this hong kong ipo reached hk$30.668 billion, making it the largest ipo in the hong kong ipo market this year.

if calculated based on the highest increase of nearly 10%, investors' floating profits from new shares of midea group once reached hk$3 billion, even exceeding the total financing amount of hk$2.586 billion of cha baidao, the largest ipo in hong kong stocks in the first half of the year.

on the other hand, the issue price of midea group's hong kong ipo was more than 20% lower than the latest closing price of its a shares on september 13, which also became the focus of heated discussion in the market.

generally speaking, the main purpose of listed companies choosing to issue shares at a discount is to pass on benefits to potential investors in order to attract financial attention and ensure a smooth ipo.

judging from the fact that the company's public offering received only 5.31 times the subscription multiple, investors in the hong kong stock market are also cautious about traditional industrial companies such as midea. considering the huge scale of financing of midea group, it does need a conservative issuance strategy to protect it.

in addition, some analysts believe that the company's choice of a conservative pricing strategy is related to the current overall sluggish environment of hong kong stocks.

according to data tracked by huaxi securities analysts li lifeng and feng yihua, as of september 13, the hang seng index pe (ttm) valuation was about 8.54 times. during the same period, the valuation levels of the a-share home appliance sector and midea group a-shares were 10.41 times and 12.24 times, respectively. it is not difficult to see that the hong kong stock market is at a discount to the a-share market, which is a relatively common situation.

however, as a representative of high-quality blue-chip stocks in the a-share market, midea group's discounted ipo in hong kong also attracted the support of many institutional investors.

data shows that in this ipo, midea group attracted 18 cornerstone investors including sequoia china, national development fund ii, byd, boyu capital, cpe yuanfeng, dajia life, tcl industrial, idg capital, etc. according to the prospectus, the 18 cornerstone investors subscribed for about 36.2% of the shares, totaling us$1.256 billion (approximately hk$9.786 billion).

however, considering all the information, the significance of midea group's listing on the h-share market is not entirely about financing.

the prospectus disclosed that the funds raised from midea group's ipo will be mainly used to bind strategic resources for going overseas and increase investment in r&d, supply chain, and overseas channel brand building.

data from the general administration of customs show that in the first eight months of 2024, the country's home appliance export volume increased by 23.6% year-on-year, and the export value was 473.58 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17.2%, significantly higher than the overall growth rate of foreign trade exports.

obviously, midea group's choice to expand overseas investment at this time will not only help the company further enhance its export momentum, but also help it improve its level of globalization and resist external pressures such as tariff risks.

sdic securities analysts li yizhen and han xingyu also mentioned in a previous report that the h-share listing is expected to promote midea to prepare financial statements in accordance with international standards, which will help enhance the company's activity in the global market.