Like an endangered species clinging on to the last remnants of its natural habitat, the Hong Kong initial public offering was scantly seen in 2012. The euro zone sovereign debt crisis rumbled through the markets for most of the year, putting paid to many issuers' plans.
Hong Kong investors, like many around the world, bunkered down, piling into bonds but largely spurning stocks and, in particular, IPOs.
But there are signs of a turnaround. People's Insurance Co (Group) of China, the mainland's largest non-life insurer, earlier in the month raised US$3.6 billion in a Hong Kong listing. The stock rose 6.9 per cent on its first day.
Most promisingly for the market, the deal was the first sizeable one in a long while to generate some strong interest from individual investors - the public offer portion of the IPO was 17.5 times subscribed.
This strong response came on top of a resurgent Hong Kong equity market, which has been rising steadily since June. Those gains are in part thanks to the United States' money-printing programme, known as quantitative easing.
Meanwhile, market volatility (known popularly as the "fear" index) has dropped by half in Hong Kong over the past six months, suggesting less risk. The equity market also looks set to stay buoyant into the new year, with the Hang Seng Index reaching for the 23,000 mark.
The suspension by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) of new IPO approvals until at least the Lunar New Year could put a damper on listings from the mainland.
