FAST NEWS: QuantaSing Makes Quiet IPO Trading Debut

The Latest: Adult education company QuantaSing Group Ltd. (QSG.US) made its IPO trading debut on Wednesday, becoming the first new U.S. listing by Chinese company sponsored by big investment banks in more than a year.

Looking Up: The company’s American depositary shares (ADSs) priced at $12.50, in the middle of their range of $11.50 to $13.50, reflecting relatively strong demand.

Take Note: QuantaSing raised a modest $40 million from the IPO, slightly more than its 233 million yuan ($34 million) loss for its most recent fiscal year through June 2022.

Digging Deeper: QuantaSing provides adult education services, with a focus on financial literacy instruction. The company’s revenue grew 63% to 2.87 billion yuan in its fiscal year through June 2022, though the figure contracted in its latest reporting quarter through September last year. The company’s listing is most notable for its big-name underwriters, including U.S. giant Citigroup and Chinese majors CICC and Citic Securities. Such big investment banks stopped underwriting new American listings for Chinese companies for more than a year due to a dispute between the U.S. and Chinese securities regulators. But that dispute was largely resolved in the second half of last year, paving the way for new listings to resume this year.

Market Reaction: QuantaSing’s shares jumped nearly 10% when trading began on Wednesday. But they later gave back the gains and even traded below the IPO price, before closing at $12.52, slightly above the IPO price.

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Reporting by Doug Young