BRIEF: MetaLight tumbles in Hong Kong trading debut

Bus information provider  MetaLight Inc. (2605.HK) suffered a bruising Hong Kong debut on Tuesday, as its shares opened down 22% at HK$7.60 on their first trading day. The stock continued to fall through the morning session, closing at HK$6.99 by the midday break, down 28% from its IPO price.

The company sold 24.9 million shares at HK$9.75 apiece, with 10% allocated to the public offering for local Hong Kong investors that was oversubscribed by 273 times. The international placement was oversubscribed by nearly 1.5 times.

Metalight’s flagship Chelaile app provides real-time public-transit information in China and has 298 million users. The listing raised net proceeds of nearly HK$160 million ($20.4 million). MetaLight said it will use over 75% of the proceeds to enhance its technical capabilities and for marketing efforts. Another 15% will go to team recruitment, with the rest reserved for general corporate purposes.

By Lau Chi Hang

To subscribe to Bamboo Works weekly free newsletter, click here