Retail portion of Mixue’s IPO sets record with nearly US$206 billion in subscriptions

In terms of margin loans, retail investors borrowed nearly HK$1.8 trillion via brokerages to subscribe to the stock, an oversubscription of more than 5,100 times relative to what was allocated to them, or 10 per cent of the HK$3.45 billion IPO, according to consolidated brokers’ data as of 10.45am.

The company was expected to announce subscription levels for retail and institutional investors on Friday. Trading is expected to begin on March 3.

The IPO attracted five cornerstone investors who agreed to buy US$200 million worth of the shares. They were British asset manager M&G Investments, HongShan Capital’s growth fund, a unit of Boyu Capital, a Hillhouse Group fund and Meituan’s Long-Z Fund.

The endorsements from large funds, the recent stock market rally and the easy margin financing terms offered by brokers contributed to the hype among individual investors for Mixue’s IPO, analysts said.

Futu Securities lent as much as HK$1.07 trillion, followed by Phillip Securities with HK$306 billion, according to TradeGo data displayed on the Futubull trading app. Some brokers offered zero-interest and highly leveraged loans to attract clients so they could buy shares.