Gaming firm Razer rises 18 percent in Hong Kong debut, rides tech boom
By Sumeet Chatterjee and Donny Kwok
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Shares in Razer Inc, backed by Intel Corp and Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, surged 18 percent in their Hong Kong stock market debut on Monday, amid growing retail demand for new technology stocks in the Asian financial hub.
Razer said last week it raised about HK$3.9 billion ($500 million), excluding underwriting and other expenses, after pricing the IPO of 1.063 billion primary shares near top of the HK$2.93-HK$4.00 range.
The Razer stock opened at around HK$5 on Monday and extended its gains to as much as HK$5.49 in early trade, up 41.5 percent compared to its IPO price of HK$3.88 per share.
The stock, however, later came off the high and ended at HK$4.58, up 18 percent for the day, giving the company a market value of HK$40.8 billion ($5.23 billion).
The company's strong debut is the latest in a string of stellar stock listings by technology-based companies in Hong Kong in the recent months, with strong interest mainly from retail investors.
Last week, Tencent's e-book unit China Literature Ltd saw its shares surge more than 80 percent in their debut, as Hong Kong investors embrace a rush of tech listings.
Shares in ZhongAn Online Property & Casualty Insurance Co jumped 18 percent in their debut in September, after the company raised $1.5 billion in Asia's biggest-ever financial technology IPO.
The excitement surrounding such offerings bodes well for expected listings from other fintech giants in Hong Kong, including Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial and peer-to-peer lending and wealth management platform Lufax.
Underscoring the demand for technology issues, the retail portion of the Razer IPO gathered demand that was 291.24 times the number of 106.36 million shares on offer, the company said on Friday.
The company, which is headquartered in Singapore and the United States, was founded in 2005 by Min-Liang Tan and Robert Krakoff and has grown from producing a gaming mouse as its initial product to manufacturing laptops worth almost $4,000.
In 2016 it bought assets from a company previously known as THX Ltd, which was founded by "Star Wars" filmmaker George Lucas, and this year it acquired certain assets and intellectual property from mobile phone manufacturer Nextbit Systems.
It plans to use the IPO proceeds to develop new verticals in the gaming and digital entertainment industry, including mobile devices, audio visual technology and live-streaming, as well as to fund acquisitions as it expands its ecosystem.
As part of the IPO process, Razer secured $150 million in commitments from cornerstone investors, including a $20 million investment from Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC, Thomson Reuters publication IFR reported last month.
($1 = 7.8009 Hong Kong dollars)
(Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee and Donny Kwok; Editing by Stephen Coates and Himani Sarkar)
