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Quick update on the top stories... QNL wins Gold Award at Cyber Security Drill. Qatar should consider a six-point strategy to support post-war opportunities in tourism, hospitality: KPMG

It has never been this busy at the start of a year for new listings in Hong Kong.Maiden share sales fetched about $5bn last month, the highest total for any January on record, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The city hosted 13 listings, including artificial-intelligence chip designers, large-language-model developers and a snack retailer.The rapid pace of offerings is a promising sign that Hong Kong can build on the recovery last year, when listing proceeds were the highest since 2021. The pipeline is brimming, with more than 350 companies waiting to list their shares in the city, Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd Chief Executive Officer Bonnie Chan said in an interview last month. Proceeds this year may reach a six-year high of $45bn, according to KPMG LLP.“This year should, all else being equal, be busier and more active than last year,” said Saurabh Dinakar, head of Asia-Pacific global capital markets at Morgan Stanley.Developments in the technology, media and telecommunications space in China, as well as innovation in the health-care sector, have helped boost sentiment, Dinakar said. Cheaper valuations in Hong Kong and mainland China have also helped entice investors to the region, he added. A gauge of Hong Kong-listed Chinese companies is trading at about 11 times estimated earnings, roughly half of S&P 500’s multiple.The January record was largely driven by Chinese technology companies like OpenAI challenger MiniMax Group Inc. and chip designer Shanghai Biren Technology Co, deals that highlight Beijing’s support for technological self-reliance in the face of an intensifying competition with the US.Sustaining that momentum for the rest of the year would cement Hong Kong’s comeback from a years-long lull. A technology crackdown in China had put an end to a listings rush in 2021, when ultra low lending costs sent investors clamouring for shares. This time around, the demand appears to be more measured, Dinakar said.“This is not the kind of exuberance we saw in 2021, when deals were heavily oversubscribed and the market quickly moved on from one transaction to the next,” Dinakar said. “The companies coming to market today are, by and large, very good companies, and interest is being driven by fundamentals.”This year’s cadence and quality of deals have led Franklin Templeton portfolio manager Nicholas Chui to participate in about a third of January’s listings and about a dozen in the past year, the most he said he had ever done. Chui said he gained confidence partly from natural selection: Companies tapping the market now have survived the height of investor concerns about China’s investability.The current boom is also different from that of years past, when IPOs would suck up liquidity and hurt the secondary market, said Chui, whose China-focused funds manage about $700mn. “There’s a lot of capacity that’s been able to absorb this new demand,” he added.Investors have been rewarded with handsome returns: this month’s listings outperformed broader indexes with a weighted-average gain of more than 70%. The deals have attracted US investors, even with Washington’s efforts to constrain Beijing’s access to cutting-edge technology simmering in the background. JPMorgan Asset Management Holdings Inc. recently signed on to be a key investor in the upcoming listing of Chinese chip designer Montage Technology Co.Bankers are setting their sights on more big-ticket deals. Investors are eyeing the potential IPOs of the AI chip units of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Baidu Inc. Second listings of Chinese companies — the bread and butter of last year’s deals boom — have continued to fill the pipeline.The frenetic pace has also spilled over to deals involving bonds that can be converted into stock. About $5.9bn worth of bonds denominated in greenback or Hong Kong dollar were sold by Asia-Pacific companies last month, marking the best January since 2018. These include Chinese miners that were pouncing on soaring metal prices.How many deals bankers will print by the end of the year may ultimately depend on forces they can’t control, such as surprise regulation. China’s securities regulator has been deliberating on raising regulatory and compliance thresholds for firms pursuing so-called H-share listings in Hong Kong, people familiar with the matter have said.Many companies seeking to list shares early in the year received their green light from the China Securities Regulatory Commission in December and are aiming to complete their deals by the Lunar New Year holiday in mid-February while the market is sizzling, said Richard Wang, a partner and head of China equity capital markets at the law firm Freshfields. 

Doha's national manufacturing strategy, which reinforces broader diversification by targeting high-value industries, will not only have ripple effect beyond industries but also slated to drive growth in infrastructure and real estate, alongside priority sectors, through trickle-down effect, according to KPMG in Qatar."The National Manufacturing Strategy serves as a central pillar within the Third National Development Strategy, reinforcing Qatar’s broader diversification agenda by targeting high-value, innovation-driven industrial growth, and positioning manufacturing as a core engine for building long-term economic resilience," KPMG in Qatar said in an article posted on a social media.Combining short-term, low-cost quick-win projects with longer-term, high-impact investments reflects a dual-track strategy that builds early momentum, lays the groundwork for systemic transformation, manages risk, and sustains stakeholder engagement through visible progress, according to the article.Highlighting the need for empowered execution through cohesive partnerships; the report said effective implementation hinges not only on the right strategy but also on the right actors, with the emphasis on solid, capable partnerships reflecting the recognition that policy ambition must be matched by public and private institutional capacity to drive results at scale.Suggesting priority sectors as growth catalysts; it said the targeted sectors are not only economically viable but are strategically selected to build competitive advantage by aligning with Qatar’s natural strengths, while the increased focus on industrialisation is expected to drive growth in the infrastructure and realty sectors alongside the priority sectors in the strategy.The priority sectors are pharmaceuticals, chemicals and petrochemicals, plastics, food and beverage, metal and fabricated metals, and construction materials, according to the national manufacturing strategy.On unlocking the potential in pharmaceuticals, KPMG in Qatar said it enhances national health security through local production of essential medicines by offering high value-added potential and opportunities for skilled employment.On plastics, which utilises petrochemical outputs to create high demand consumer and industrial products; the article said it encourages innovation in packaging, construction, and manufacturing applications.About focus on metals and fabricated metals, it facilitates infrastructure and industrial development through critical inputs by promoting higher value-added activities in metalworking and product assembly.On the potential in chemicals and petrochemicals, the article said it leverages Qatar’s abundant hydrocarbon resources for downstream diversification, supporting export growth and global competitiveness in industrial chemicals."As Qatar advances its national manufacturing strategy, the ripple effects will extend beyond industry, shaping the country’s infrastructure and real estate landscape in critical ways," it said, adding increased manufacturing activity would drive demand for purpose-built industrial zones, logistics hubs, and warehousing facilities.KPMG noted demand for accommodation, office space, and complementary developments such as retail and food and beverage outlets is likely to increase around emerging manufacturing clusters, supporting broader patterns of urban expansion.Growth in manufacturing would require robust transportation networks, utilities, sustainable, Eco-friendly, digital infrastructure to ensure seamless operations and connectivity, it said, adding coordinated planning will be essential to balance industrial growth with sustainability, zoning efficiency, and urban liveability.Highlighting that Qatar already has a well-established built environment, comprising extensive infrastructure and real estate developments distributed across various zones; it said further expansion of these sectors is expected to generate significant trickle-down effects across other areas of the economy."The evolution of these sectors has been shaped by a series of economic, geopolitical, and global events over the past decade, each influencing demand patterns and driving shifts in growth and investment across the broader landscape," it said.