The number of global stock IPOs has nosedived this year as dragged by heightened business uncertainty due to US tariffs, as well as increased financing costs as a result of escalated market volatility and rising interest rates, which dampened the appeal for issuers to go public.

As of June 17, data from the London Stock Exchange showed that global IPO fundraising decreased by around 9.3% YoY to a nine-year low of USD44.3 billion.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong's IPO fundraising reached HKD100 billion (around USD12.739 billion) as of June 15, more than a fivefold increase from the same period last year, pushing the city back to the top position in global IPO fundraising, according to publicly available data.