Hong Kong restaurant chain owner Dining Concepts Holdings saw its shares surge as many as 17 times on its first day of trading on Friday.
The company raised HK$90 million (US$11.6 million) through the offer on Hong Kong stock exchange’s Growth Enterprise Market (GEM), with the top 25 investors taking up almost 95 per cent of the total shares sold, regulatory filings show. GEM offers people the chance to invest in “high-growth, high-risk” businesses.
Prometheus Capital, owned by Wang Sicong, son of the Chinese billionaire founder of Dalian Wanda Group, Wang Jianlin, holds a 10.1 per cent stake in Dining Concepts.
Shares in the restaurant company rose as high as $8.02 and closed at $4.3, compared to the IPO price of 45c. The surge took the market value to $3.4 billion, according to Reuters.
Founded in 2002 by restaurant entrepreneur Sandeep Sekhri, Dining Concepts runs more than 20 restaurants and associated businesses.