By Julie Zhu
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Shares in Yixin Group Ltd (HK:2858), China's largest online car retailer, gained as much as 32 percent on their trading debut in Hong Kong on Thursday, benefiting from rising enthusiasm for technology stocks in the Asian financial hub.
Yixin's debut is the latest in a string of technology share offerings in Hong Kong, which have been generating strong retail investor demand.
Backed by internet giants Tencent Holdings (HK:0700) and JD.com (O:JD), Yixin raised HK$6.77 billion ($867 million) after pricing its initial public offering (IPO) at the top of the indicative range of HK$6.60–HK$7.70.
The shares opened at around HK$10 and extended gains to HK$10.18 in early trade, posting a 32 percent gain over the initial offering price of HK$7.70 and giving the firm a market value of HK$64.1 billion ($8.21 billion).
By 0205 GMT, the stock was trading at HK$8.70.
Spun off from New York-listed online automobile marketplace Bitauto Holdings (N:BITA) in 2014, Yixin has gradually grown into a large online firm for trading new and second-hand cars, as well as providing auto-related financing services.
It posted a loss of 6.11 billion yuan ($16.62 million) in the first half of 2017, compared to a loss of 647,000 yuan a year earlier. Its revenue more than tripled to 1.55 billion yuan over the same period.
Chinese internet giant Tencent owns 24.3 percent of Yixin, while JD Financial Investment, a unit of JD.com, controls 12.7 percent and Chinese search engine Baidu (O:BIDU) holds 3.5 percent of the company.
On Monday, shares in gaming firm Razer Inc (HK:1337), backed by Intel Corp (O:INTC) and Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, surged 18 percent in its Hong Kong stock market debut, after raising about $500 million in an IPO.
That came a week after China Literature Ltd (HK:0772), the e-book unit of Tencent, saw its shares surge more than 80 percent in their debut, marking the biggest first-day gain for a large IPO globally this year.