Citi's view puts liquidity, growth and profitability at the center of Hong Kong financing cases for Chinese AI issuers.
Citi expects Chinese AI supply-chain companies to keep listing in Hong Kong as valuation pullbacks among data-center companies raise scrutiny of AI-linked deals. Reuters reported October 17 that Simon Yuan, Citi’s head of China investment banking, expects future listings to continue in the city. Reuters also identified Yuan as head of Citi’s financial institutions group in Asia-Pacific. He made the comments on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund meetings in Bangkok.
The view arrives after a large nine-month run for Hong Kong fund-raising. HKEX recorded 118 newly listed companies and HK$388.0 billion in IPO proceeds through September, increases of 71% and 106% from the same period a year earlier. The exchange’s count includes transfers from the Growth Enterprise Market to the Main Board. Its proceeds definition includes subscription, sales and placing offerings. HKEX also reported HK$724.0 billion in total funds raised, including IPOs, for the period, a 60% increase; it labeled that aggregate provisional.
A separate LSEG series reported by the South China Morning Post counted 112 companies raising US$48.4 billion on Hong Kong’s Main Board in the first nine months, plus two Growth Enterprise Market listings. SCMP described the combined 114-listing total as the busiest nine-month period since 2018. The two published series establish the scale of activity around Citi’s assessment of future AI-related deals.
Citi’s support case centers on the buyer mix
Yuan said Chinese companies planning Hong Kong listings were cushioned by roughly even demand from domestic Chinese and international investors. He also cited local liquidity and rising southbound mainland capital as support for the market. Reuters presented the even split as Yuan’s assessment of demand and gave no offering-level allocation data.
HKEX’s figures show a trading market that has remained active alongside the IPO total. Average daily turnover for the first nine months was HK$272.9 billion, 6% above the equivalent 2025 period, according to the exchange. That liquidity measure and Citi’s description of investor demand frame the bank’s case for continued access to capital. HKEX’s turnover metric records securities trading rather than new-issue proceeds, so it supplies a separate gauge of market activity.
Yuan also linked the expected listings to the current performance of Chinese hardware suppliers. Reuters reported that they have benefited from the global AI infrastructure boom through higher sales volumes and unit prices. It also said many suppliers have established manufacturing operations outside mainland China to serve global customers and manage geopolitical friction. Those reported commercial conditions provide the backdrop for Citi’s expectation of further supply-chain offerings.
Citi expects the IPO pipeline to move beyond hardware
Citi expects Hong Kong’s equity capital markets to shift next year toward Chinese AI model and application developers. Yuan said prospective issuers would need to demonstrate proven business models, strong growth and profitability. The formulation directs attention to operating results as well as a company’s connection to the AI supply chain.
The Reuters report did not name companies preparing a Hong Kong listing or give a timetable for specific offerings. Citi’s criteria describe the characteristics it expects investors to require. For firms considering an IPO, the bank’s stated emphasis places business performance alongside the market’s available capital and recent listing activity. The bank’s focus on growth and profitability gives a common standard for comparing model and application companies with the hardware suppliers that led the prior wave.
U.S. valuation moves remain Citi’s stated risk
Yuan said the valuation pullback in data-center companies had largely originated in the U.S. market. He warned that a turn in the wider U.S. AI cycle would affect markets broadly, including Hong Kong. The warning gives the bank’s Hong Kong view a clearly stated external sensitivity after recent U.S. volatility.
The September totals are historical measures of a strong period for Hong Kong listings. Citi’s comments concern future candidates. Its investment-banking view rests on the buyer mix, local liquidity and mainland capital it described; shifts in U.S. AI valuations would test those sources of support. A new Hong Kong filing or pricing would supply the concrete evidence of whether prospective issuers meet Citi’s growth and profitability threshold.