New | Shares of Lenovo parent Legend rise in Hong Kong market debut

Legend Holdings, the parent of computer giant Lenovo Group, delivered an upbeat performance in the first day of trading in Hong Kong on Monday, rising 1 per cent in one of the city’s biggest listing events this year.

At 9:31am, shares of Legend rose 0.4 per cent to HK$43.15, while the Hang Seng Index shed 0.79 per cent to 26,451.96, after the People’s Bank of China cut the interest rates for the fourth times since November.

The Beijing-based company, which has a 30.56 per cent stake in principal subsidiary Lenovo, raised US$2 billion from a share sale of 353 million shares, making it the city’s third biggest listing so far this year.

As a household name in China, the demand for the shares was well received by both institutional and retail investors. More than 20 cornerstone investors had bought a combined US$950 million worth of shares, representing almost half of the entire deal. The local retail market was about 45 times oversubscribed, representing 7.5 per cent of the deal at the end.

Founded by entrepreneur and former Lenovo chairman Liu Chuanzhi in 1984, Legend has grown into one of mainland China’s biggest investment groups. It posted revenue of 289.5 billion yuan (US$47.2 billion) last year and had total assets worth 289 billion yuan as of December 31.

Besides the stake in Lenovo, the group also owns private equity firm Hony Capital, which bought the UK PizzaExpress last year, as well as CAR Inc, a Hong Kong-listed auto rental company.

Shares in Lenovo dropped 2.2 per cent to HK$10.7, compared with its 52-week low of 9.68, while CAR Inc shares gave up 1.7 per cent to HK$16.42, well above its offer price of HK$8.5 in September last year, when the company raised HK$3.4 billion in a Hong Kong listing.