Shares of Baidu opened at 254 Hong Kong dollars (about 33 U.S. dollars) on Tuesday, up slightly from its offer price of 252 Hong Kong dollars.
The public offering was oversubscribed more than 112 times by local retail investors, and about 10 times by international buyers. The search engine giant is expected to raise 23.68 billion Hong Kong dollars, which will be used for investment in technology and its mobile ecosystem, among others.
In its prospectus, the tech firm highlighted its leading position in artificial intelligence (AI) and said it owns the largest portfolio of AI patents and AI patent applications in the mainland. Baidu App, which is at the core of the company's mobile ecosystem, had 544 million monthly active users last December.
Core generated revenues of the company stood at 78.3 billion yuan (about 12 billion U.S. dollars), 79.7 billion yuan and 78.7 billion yuan in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively.
The fund-raising of Baidu, which first went public in Nasdaq in 2005, signaled a continued trend of homecoming listings by mainland companies. More than 10 such firms have finished secondary listings in Hong Kong, including Alibaba and JD.com. (1 U.S. dollar equals 7.7654 HK dollars or 6.5036 yuan)
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