By Carrie Chen
Nikkei Markets
HONG KONG (Jan 02) -- Fundraising in Hong Kong's initial public offering market is poised to be the largest in the world in 2018, bolstered by rescheduled offerings from last year and bets that listing reforms in the city will lure more companies, PricewaterhouseCoopers said.
Global consulting company PwC expects 150 companies to list in Hong Kong during 2018, raising between HK$200 billion ($25.6 billion) and HK$250 billion. This compares to a record 174 listings on the stock exchange's main board and the growth enterprise market board for smaller companies in 2017. Total funds raised last year came in at HK$128.2 billion, 34% lower than 2016, hurt by a lack of "mega-sized" IPOs, PwC said. It also cited some large-scaled offerings being rescheduled for 2018 as a reason for the decline.
