Pedestrians pass by the office of HKEX in Hong Kong. File photo: VCG

 The Hong Kong stock exchange has seen IPOs rebound since September, eclipsing US stock exchanges, as more companies from the Chinese mainland turn to Hong Kong amid the China-US trade war.

According to data compiled by Bloomberg, 24 companies have been listed on the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) since September, raising HK$61.65 billion ($7.9 billion), exceeding $7 billion raised on NASDAQ and $3 billion on the New York Stock Exchange.

On Tuesday, the HKEX also announced plans to enhance guidance for overseas companies seeking to list in Hong Kong, in a bid to facilitate the IPO application process. 

The rise in the number of Hong Kong IPOs largely reflected the economic transformation and upgrading in the Chinese mainland, said Dong Dengxin, director of the financial securities institute at the Wuhan University of Science and Technology.

"Many internet companies have emerged along with the fast development of the innovation economy. Although small internet companies prefer NASDAQ, other types of companies consider HKEX their top choice because they are more familiar with Hong Kong's IPO rules," Dong told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Domestic baby formula maker China Feihe is seeking to raise up to HK$8.9 billion in its Hong Kong IPO, and it started taking investor orders on Monday.

In 2003, Feihe was listed on NASDAQ, subsequently shifting to the New York Stock Exchange. The company delisted from the US bourse in 2013 because of "increasing difficulty in raising funds from the US capital market," media reports said that year.

Budweiser Brewing Co APAC, part of the world's largest brewer AB InBev, raised $5 billion in Hong Kong in September. That was the world's second-biggest IPO after Uber Technologies Inc in 2019.

The US pressure on Chinese companies listed in the US also impedes mainland companies from going public in the US, Dong said, and more companies would list in Hong Kong.

A mainland businessperson surnamed Guo told the Global Times on Tuesday that he is considering an IPO in Hong Kong because it is "close" to the mainland and influential in Southeast Asia. Guo's company is engaged in the overseas insurance business in Jakarta, capital of Indonesia.

In response to the influx of mainland companies, HKEX told the Global Times on Tuesday that it has a vibrant market and a healthy IPO pipeline, and it looks forward to welcoming more quality companies.