Luxury Brands Take IPOs to Hong Kong

Prada, the Milan-based luxury goods house, is expected to list its shares in Hong Kong in a $2 billion initial public offering on June 24. Prada will follow on the success of organic cosmetics and skin-care maker L'Occitane Internationale, which raised $840 million in Hong Kong last year. Prada's choice of the Hong Kong stock exchange over bourses in Milan, London, and New York is more evidence that the globe's economic center of gravity is shifting to Asia. "Companies want to face their future, not their past," says Sam Kendall, head of equity capital markets for Asia-Pacific at UBS (UBS).

The flurry of international listings is helping Hong Kong boost its IPO tally. In 2010, companies raised $51.8 billion through 95 IPOs on Hong Kong's stock exchange, compared with a total of $48.22 billion in 196 deals on the New York Stock Exchange (NYX) and Nasdaq (NDAQ). So far this year, 25 IPOs in Hong Kong have raised $7.7 billion.