Updates with closing share performance in headline, paragraph 1, 3-4

By Donny Kwok and Yantoultra Ngui

HONG KONG/SINGAPORE, April 21 (Reuters) - Shares of Chinese circuit board maker Victory Giant Technology 2476.HK closed 50.1% higher in their Hong Kong debut on Tuesday, after raising HK$20.1 billion ($2.6 billion) in a share sale in the city's biggest listing in about seven months.

Shares of the company, based in China's southern Guangdong province, opened 57.2% higher at HK$330 versus an offer price of HK$209.88 each. The firm makes printed circuit boards for artificial intelligence servers and other electronics.

The company's shares earlier climbed as much as 60.2% to HK$336.2 and closed at HK$315 with 33.8 million shares worth HK$10.8 billion changing hands. It was the most actively traded stock in terms of turnover on the Hong Kong bourse on Tuesday, followed by Tencent 0700.HK and Alibaba 9988.HK.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index .HSI closed 0.5% higher. Victory Giant's Shenzhen-listed stock 300476.SZ ended the day 3.5% lower at 330.9 yuan.

Victory Giant exercised its offer size adjustment option in full, increasing the number of shares sold to 95.85 million from 83.35 million.

The retail offering was 431.15 times subscribed, while the international offering was 18.5 times covered, according to a filing on Tuesday.

The strong debut adds to signs that investor appetite for large Hong Kong listings, particularly in AI-linked sectors, has remained resilient despite broader market volatility in the wake of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

Winston Ma, executive director of the Global Public Investment Funds Forum and a former managing director at the China Investment Corporation, said pricing the deal at the top end and exercising the upsize option despite market volatility pointed to deep demand in Hong Kong's IPO market for advanced Chinese manufacturing firms.

Meanwhile, dealmakers have flagged closer scrutiny of some mainland Chinese companies seeking Hong Kong listings, raising concerns that momentum in the city's IPO pipeline could slow in the near term even as larger deals continue to come to market.

"In 2026, the Hong Kong market has successfully hosted a series of sizable China AI-linked listings that enjoyed strong post-IPO trading and the trend shows no sign of slowing down unless the U.S.-Iran war uncertainty deepens," Ma said.

Victory Giant's offering is the largest new listing globally since Czechoslovak Group's CSG.AS Amsterdam debut in January after a 3.8 billion euro ($4.48 billion) IPO. It was also Hong Kong's biggest IPO since Zijin Gold International's 2259.HK $3.2 billion deal in September, according to Dealogic.

AI SUPPLY CHAIN BET

The printed circuit board (PCB) maker's Hong Kong listing is the latest in a wave of Chinese companies that have tapped into the city's equity market over the past year.

"At present, both mainland China stocks and Hong Kong stocks in this category continue to receive significant attention from capital, largely because the companies in these related industries are in a phase of rapid earnings growth," said Kenny Ng, a securities strategist at China Everbright Securities International.

"I expect the popularity of these sectors to remain strong going forward," he added.

Founded in 2006 in Huizhou, Guangdong province, the company ranked first globally in terms of sales revenue in the PCB market for AI and high-performance computing in the first half of 2025 with a 13.8% market share, according to its prospectus, citing consulting firm Frost & Sullivan.

In 2025, Victory Giant said its revenue rose 80% from a year earlier to 19.3 billion Chinese yuan ($2.8 billion), while net profit surged to 4.3 billion yuan from 1.2 billion yuan.

Nearly three-quarters of the funds raised would be used to expand production in China, its prospectus said.

Cornerstone investors led by CPE Rosewood, Janchor Fund and Jack Ma-backed Yunfeng Capital agreed to buy nearly $997 million worth of Victory Giant shares.

($1 = 7.8312 Hong Kong dollars)

($1 = 0.8487 euros)

($1 = 6.8157 Chinese yuan renminbi)