By Jiahui Huang
Chinese robotics specialist Shenzhen Dobot had a lackluster trading debut in Hong Kong after raising nearly US$100 million in one of the Asian financial hub's last initial public offerings of the year.
Shares were only about 1% over the offering price early on Monday, sitting at 18.98 Hong Kong dollars, equivalent to US$2.44. The benchmark Hang Seng Index was 0.5% higher.
Shenzhen Dobot specializes in "cobots", industrial robots meant to operate alongside humans in a workspace. The company raised gross proceeds of about HK$752.0 million after pricing shares at HK$18.80 each, at the bottom end of the marketed range. The offering for institutional investors was 2.64 times oversubscribed while that for retail investors was 9.25 times oversubscribed, according to a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange.
The company plans to use the net proceeds to develop its collaborative robots and boost manufacturing capabilities and overseas sales channels, among other purposes.
Shenzhen Dobot expects to record a net loss for 2024 as it invests in expansion, its prospectus showed.
The company is the latest from the robotics sector to seek a Hong Kong listing in recent months. Beijing-based autonomous driving technology firm Horizon Robotics raised nearly US$700 million in October, while last week, Beijing Geekplus Technology filed for an IPO.
Write to Jiahui Huang at jiahui.huang@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 22, 2024 23:00 ET (04:00 GMT)
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