Richard Li (left) attends the IPO ceremony of his FWD Group at Exchange Square in Central, Hong Kong.
Shanshan Kao/Forbes Asia
Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li’s insurer FWD Group saw its shares close flat in the company’s long-awaited Hong Kong stock market debut Monday, marking the culmination of the company’s nearly five years of efforts to go public.
FWD ended its first day of trading at HK$38.25 ($4.87), almost flat from the HK$38 per share set for the initial public offering on the main bourse, which raised HK$3.47 billion. Its market capitalization is at about HK$48.8 billion.
“Today’s listing is an important milestone for our customers, our partners and our teams across Asia, and highlights Hong Kong’s continued strength as a good listing destination,” said Li, chairman of Pacific Century Group and founder of FWD Group, in a prepared statement.
Cornerstone investors in the insurer’s IPO include Mubadala Capital, the asset management arm of Abu Dhabi’s state-backed Mubadala Investment Co., and T&D United Capital, a subsidiary of Japanese insurance giant T&D Holdings. FWD said it would use the IPO proceeds to enhance its capital position, potentially reduce debt, and support further expansion of its customer and channel reach.
FWD’s listing follows previous applications that lapsed under lukewarm market conditions or were withdrawn due to heightened regulatory scrutiny. The Hong Kong-headquartered insurance company’s latest application in May marked its fourth attempt to list on its hometown bourse – including applications in March 2023, September 2022 and February 2022 – and its fifth in total, including the submission of a draft registration statement in June 2021 to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
FWD is majority-owned by Pacific Century Group, Li’s investment company, which has interests in finance, technology and property. Through Pacific Century Group and other holding companies, Li owns a 66.45% stake in FWD, worth $4.1 billion, based on the company’s latest valuation.
Founded in 2013, FWD serves approximately 30 million people across 10 markets, including Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, Singapore and Thailand, according to the company. It reported a net profit after tax of $24 million in the full year ended December 2024, marking its first full year of profitability and first positive operating cash flow under the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 17’s accounting standards. Its total assets over that period reached $53.7 billion, an increase of around 2% from the year prior.
The younger son of Li Ka-shing, Hong Kong’s wealthiest person, the junior Li established FWD after announcing he would acquire Dutch banking giant ING Group’s insurance and pension units in Hong Kong, Macau and Thailand in late 2012. Since then, FWD has expanded through a series of investments and acquisitions across Asia, while attracting backers such as global reinsurer Swiss Re, Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments).
The company’s debut comes as Hong Kong has reclaimed its crown as the world’s top listing venue in 2025, driven by surging investor interest in tech stocks and mainland Chinese companies pivoting towards Hong Kong listings to hedge against U.S.-China tensions.
From the beginning of 2025 through June 26, there were 41 listings in Hong Kong raising a total of more than HK$104 billion, according to data from the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing. Among the companies that went public in the city are gold jeweler Zhou Liu Fu Jewellery, whose shares soared nearly 70% over its first two trading days in late June, catapulting its chairman into the ranks of the world’s billionaires; and Thai coconut water maker IFBH, which saw its shares jump 42% in its debut just days later.
In May, Chinese billionaire Robin Zeng’s battery manufacturing giant Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) raised HK$35.7 billion ($4.6 billion) by selling 135.6 million shares at HK$263 apiece, the top of their marketed range, according to exchange filings – making its IPO the world’s largest this year.
