Hong Kong IPO market is starting to face resistance. Morgan Stanley: future market performance may depend on large IPO projects.

Media reports suggest that the Hong Kong IPO market, which has been heating up over the past year, is starting to encounter resistance. This is due to regulatory warnings about manpower shortages and document quality issues, as well as market volatility caused by geopolitical factors, leading to a more conservative market sentiment. Zhang Xiaoyu, head of stock capital markets at Morgan Stanley Asia Pacific, pointed out that IPO transactions have recently become "more challenging," with companies with strong fundamentals and reasonable valuations still able to complete transactions, but smaller deals may face difficulties or be delayed. The report indicates that the market performance in the coming year will to some extent depend on the completion of large IPO projects. For example, China National Chemical Corporation's agrochemical giant Syngenta Group plans to IPO in Hong Kong this year, potentially raising as much as $10 billion. Other highly anticipated companies planning to go public include the retail giant Watsons Group under CK Hutchison Holdings, and Kunlun Core, the artificial intelligence chip division under Baidu. Zhang Xiaoyu stated that investors are still actively involved in certain larger IPO projects in preparation, and global investors are still interested in innovative sectors such as technology, artificial intelligence, and healthcare. For smaller IPO projects, investment banks must assess whether they have enough manpower. Hong Kong regulators suggest that each principal sponsor should be responsible for a maximum of 5 active transactions, with some banks becoming more hesitant to take on new projects as a result.