TikTok rival loses steam: World’s roughest IPO this year is Chinese firm

The three biggest money losers among large listings in 2021 are all Chinese, thanks to the country’s widening tech crackdown.

Investors who bought Kuaishou Technology after the TikTok rival went public in Hong Kong have notched the widest peak-to-trough slump among global initial public offerings this year. New York-listed DiDi Global Inc., which was hit by a data security probe in July, has fallen 54% while video-app firm Bilibili Inc. is down by nearly half from peaks touched this year.

Kuaishou, which runs a video streaming app on the mainland, is down about 80% since it hit a Feb. 17 peak less than two weeks after it raised $5.4 billion in Hong Kong’s largest float in 2021. That is the largest plunge from a high among the 36 companies that raised more than $1.5 billion worldwide in 2021 from IPOs, Bloomberg data show.

Kuaishou’s slump illustrates the fizzling appetite for offshore-listed China shares since Beijing began clamping down on a wide swath of private firms.

Meanwhile, Robinhood Markets Inc., the popular trading app that listed just over two months ago, ranks seventh, having tumbled 40% from its August peak.

–With assistance from Jeffrey Hernandez and Sophia Tian.

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