Budweiser Brewing Co. APAC Ltd.’s shares opened 1.5% higher in their Hong Kong debut, outperforming the broader Hang Seng Index in what has been the world’s second-biggest initial public offering so far this year.
Shares of Anheuser-Busch InBev SA ’s ABI, +0.25% Asian arm opened at 27.40 Hong Kong dollars (US$3.49) on Monday, above the HK$27.00 IPO price, which was at the lower end of the indicative price range. But shares were most recently up 4.2%, while the Hang Seng HSI, +0.60% was last up 0.6%.
Budweiser BUD, -0.59% raised US$5 billion last week to take the crown of Hong Kong’s largest IPO in 2019 to date, and place itself at No. 2 worldwide, behind U.S. ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc. UBER, -4.05% US$8.1 billion New York listing, according to Dealogic.
This is the second try at a Hong Kong listing by the Asian unit of the world’s largest brewer. In mid-July Budweiser called off a US$10 billion IPO attempt due to lukewarm investor response. Later that month it sold its Australian unit and came back to the market in early September as a smaller and faster-growing company that draws most of its sales from China, South Korea, India and Vietnam.
An expanded version of this report can be found at WSJ.com
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