THE Nasdaq Stock Market is thrilled to see more Chinese companies launching initial public offerings (IPOs) in U.S. markets this year, driven by upbeat growth prospects, said a senior official at the U.S. stock exchange.

The impressive numbers of Chinese IPOs listed on Nasdaq to date appear to indicate a rising trend for Chinese companies seeking exposure and new capital in U.S. markets, Xinhua quoted Robert McCooey, senior vice president of Nasdaq’s listing services unit, as saying yesterday.

“We saw a great year with 22 IPOs from China on Nasdaq last year, already 15 from China this year. So we expect that we should surpass last year’s number and the pipeline continues to be very, very strong for Chinese companies who are interested in accessing the U.S. capital markets,” McCooey said.

“So we are seeing companies of all shapes, all sizes, all kinds of sectors [in China] coming to the market. Most of them are [of] very high growth with a huge market. And what we’re seeing is a big pipeline,” said McCooey, who has worked for Nasdaq for 13 years.

The U.S. equity market witnessed an IPO boom with a total of 43 Chinese companies coming in 2018, a marked upswing from the 24 firms in 2017 and 10 in 2016, according to data from Wind, a financial data provider.

The year of 2018, which McCooey called “a terrifically strong year at Nasdaq,” witnessed seven of the largest 10 technology IPOs by proceeds landing on the New York City-based stock exchange.

Among them, Chinese video streaming service iQiyi raised US$2.25 billion, and Chinese e-commerce Pinduoduo gathered US$1.62 billion, both topping the tally, based on statistics released by Nasdaq.

So far this year, the IPO proceeds of Nasdaq-listed Chinese companies were also significant, said the Wall Street veteran. Prior to Luckin Coffee’s U.S. debut Friday, around US$800 million had been collected through the 14 Chinese IPOs.

Luckin Coffee raised US$561 million solely via its IPO at a price of US$17 a share.

The optimism came as McCooey also believed that U.S. investors have remained bullish on the growth prospects of Chinese companies overall in the long term, especially in fields such as health care, consumer brands, technology and e-commerce, as “they are building amazing businesses.”(Xinhua)