The startup behind a TikTok-style video app rocketed in its Hong Kong market debut, in the latest demonstration of investor hunger for initial public offerings and for high-growth technology companies.
Shares in Kuaishou Technology more than doubled from their IPO price on Friday, implying a market value of about $159 billion, versus nearly $61 billion when the share sale was priced.
Kuaishou is backed by the Chinese tech giant
Tencent Holdings Ltd.
and competes with ByteDance Ltd., the closely held Chinese firm behind TikTok and its domestic sister app, Douyin. The $5.4 billion initial public offering is the world’s largest in more than a year, according to Dealogic.
The offering is the latest in a string of hot IPOs in Hong Kong, many involving Chinese technology startups or other companies catering to China’s increasingly affluent consumers. Last year, for example, the bottled-water group
Nongfu Spring Co.
jumped