Cirrus Aircraft prices its stock midrange at HK$27.50 as pace of Hong Kong’s IPOs picks up

An aircraft assembler has priced its stock at the middle of a range in Hong Kong, becoming the first company of its kind to raise capital on the local exchange, as the city’s pace of fundraising picks up from a three-year slump.

Cirrus Aircraft, the Minnesota-based assembler of light planes that has been owned since 2011 by China Aviation Industry General Aircraft (Caiga), will offer its shares at HK$27.50 (US$3.52) apiece, Reuters reported, citing a source with direct knowledge of the matter.

Cirrus raised HK$1.5 billion by selling 54.87 million shares, about 15 per cent of its stock. Its cornerstone investors, including a Chinese state-owned enterprise restructuring fund, bought HK$851 million of the offering, according to regulatory filings. The stock, listed under the code 2507, will trade for the first time on Friday.

The company was set up four decades ago by the Klapmeier brothers to produce the VK-30 kit aircraft. That model was followed by the four-seat, SR20 and SR22 single-propeller planes, among the bestselling products in the segment in the past 20 years, according to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (Gama). The SR2X series contributed to more than half of the company’s revenue in 2023, Cirrus said.

Cirrus’ Vision SF50, a US$7 million single-engine jet plane, is the dominant model for light aircraft that can accommodate seven occupants.