Tencent-backed Yixin’s IPO is Hong Kong’s 10th hottest ever as investors eye China’s online car sales growth

Yixin Group, China’s largest online car retailer, has priced its highly-anticipated initial public offering at the upper end of the price range to raise a total HK$6.77 billion (US$870 million), as investors eye the rapid rise of vehicle e-commerce in the mainland.

The offering, the third largest by an internet business in Hong Kong this year, has been oversubscribed 560 times by retail bidders, with locked-in investor capital of HK$382 billion, making it the 10th hottest IPO in the city’s history.

Yixin priced the 879 million shares on offer at the top end of an indicative price range of HK$6.6 to HK$7.7.

More than 300,000 retail investors bid for the new shares, Yixin said on Wednesday. Of those, about 32,000 subscribed for just one lot each, of whom 3,200 were successful. The 10 per cent success rate is still higher than China Literature, whose recent IPO only had a 7.7 per cent success rate among retail bidders.

The stock is scheduled to start trading Thursday on the market.

Apart from the appeal of the Tencent brand, the rapid growth of e-commerce in China’s car sales sector was a big draw for investors. Technology is increasingly disrupting the traditional car-buying industry, with consumers using the internet and bypassing dealers at every stage of the process, from purchasing vehicles to loans and insurance.