HONG KONG : Shares of China's Horizon Construction Development Ltd plunged 29 per cent in their Hong Kong market debut on Thursday after it raised $210.2 million in its initial public offering.
The provider of construction services opened at HK$3.26 per share after it priced its shares at HK$4.52 each, which was at the bottom of a range flagged to investors when the deal was launched.
The stock was fell as much as 29 per cent in early trade to HK$3.21.
Horizon is being spun off from financial services provider Far East Horizon Ltd which will retain a 71.7 per cent stake.
Demand for Horizon Construction shares during the IPO's bookbuild was weak, with retail investors taking up just 12 per cent of the stock on offer to them, according to the company's filings.
There were 36.47 million shares on offer for sale to Hong Kong's retail investors but those shareholders bought only 4.48 million shares, the filings showed.
The stock that was not bought was sold to institutional investors.
Hong Kong's army of retail investors are typically strong participants in IPOs but ongoing stockmarket volatility has prompted them to retreat from equities.
The city's Hang Seng Index is down about 3 per cent year to date.
The institutional tranche was 1.47 times oversubscribed with 122 investors taking stock in the IPO, which is also considered weak compared to previous deals where books were multiple times oversubscribed.