Banks Stung by Shrinking Fees in Cutthroat Hong Kong IPO Boom

Investment banks are on track to take home their smallest slice of underwriting fees from Hong Kong listings in years, even as share sales in the city have staged a blistering rebound.

Companies going public in the city paid banks an average base fee of 1.5% of the money raised, excluding incentives, the lowest since at least 2000, according to capital-markets data provider LSEG. That compares with an average of 2.3% over that quarter century and with a rate of 2.4% across the Asia-Pacific region this year. The final figure may shift as some deals are yet to price this month.