Among them, 297 companies submitted their applications for the first time in 2026, accounting for 56.36%, including 52 companies that submitted twice within the year; 210 companies submitted for the first time in 2025, accounting for 39.85%; the rest wereearlier first-submission projects, totaling 20 companies, accounting for approximately 3.8%.
In terms of listed sectors, the main board remains the dominant area, with 514 companies submitting applications for listing on the main board, accounting for 97.5%; only 13 companies submitted to the GEM, indicating that small and medium-sized enterprises remain cautious about listing on the GEM under current market conditions.
It is worth noting that 140 companies submitted with both A-share and H-share status, accounting for 26.57% of the total. This proportion is relatively high in recent years, indicating a growing demand for A-share companies to seek a second listing location on Hong Kong Stock Exchange, which aligns with the policy orientation of the mainland regulatory authorities to encourage high-quality enterprises to list on Hong Kong.
The extended validity period of submissions will significantly reduce the risk of invalidation
Looking at the submission status, among the 527 submissions, 71 companies are already listed, 5 have passed the review, 372 are being processed, and 79 submissions have become invalid.
It is important to note that on August 21, 2026, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange announced that the valid period for eligible new listing applications was extended from 6 months to 12 months. The new measure will be implemented starting today and lasts for three years. Therefore, the 79 invalid submissions were all invalid before August 21, and they do not meet the criteria for the extended effective date.
Additionally, the 5 companies that passed the review are: NZ Tech,Starring Technology, Benmu Power, Garryli, and Tanboer; it should be noted that there is also one company that submitted last October and passed the review in March, Huahui Optoelectronics, which was not included due to statistical limitations.
The number of submissions varies, with mainly two rounds of submissions
In terms of the number of submissions, companies making their first and second submissions were the largest, with 245 and 232 companies respectively, accounting for 46.5% and 44.0%; subsequently, the number of third submissions dropped sharply to 41, and only 7 companies submitted for the fourth time; the companies that submitted for the sixth and seventh times were:Central Circle Technologyand Lala Technology.
Central Circle Technology is a company focused on supplying and delivering medicines, especially prescription drugs, to patients in need;Lala Technologyis a leading technology-enabled, data-driven logistics trading platform.
Industry concentration is significant: software services, industrial manufacturing, and healthcare are the three dominant sectors
Based on the industries of the submitting companies, in the first eight months of 2026, a total of 29 industries were involved by the newly submitted companies. The industries with the highest number of submissions were software services (116 companies, 22.01%), industrial manufacturing (110 companies, 20.87%), healthcare (110 companies, 20.87%), and semiconductor (41 companies, 7.78%).
High regional concentration: Guangdong, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Beijing contributed more than 70%
According to the data by province/region of the submitting companies, the companies that submitted in the first eight months of 2026 were mainly concentrated in:
Guangdong (123 companies, 23.34%);
Shanghai (85 companies, 16.13%);
Jiangsu (66 companies, 12.53%);
Zhejiang (63 companies, 11.95%);
Beijing (48 companies, 9.11%);
Shandong (26 companies, 4.93%);
Hong Kong (20 companies, 3.8%) etc.
Industry consultants are led by Frost & Sullivan,and sponsors are led by Chinese-funded institutions
Industry consultants are essential intermediary agencies before a new stock is listed in Hong Kong. Among the 527 submissions in the first eight months of 2026, Frost & Sullivan participated in 368 submissions, accounting for 69.83%, while the remaining 12 industry consultants participated in 159 submissions, accounting for 30.17%. Frost & Sullivan leads far ahead.
Sponsors, as the most important role in new stock issuance, play a crucial role in the overall listing process, acting as a bridge between the issuer and other intermediaries.
According to LiveReport's Big Data, in the first eight months of 2026, among the 527 submissions, a total of 65 sponsors were involved, with the top three sponsors beingCICC, CITIC Securities, and Huatai Securities, participating in 132, 105, and 69 projects respectively. One-fourth of the submissions were sponsored by CICC.
Overall, in the first eight months, the sponsors of the submitting companies were mainly Chinese-funded, with only JPMorgan Chase being a foreign-funded participant among the top ten.
Outlook: Sufficient IPO reserves, new regulations expected to improve submission conversion rate
Overall, in the first eight months of 2026, the IPO reserve pool on Hong Kong Stock Exchange was at a high level in recent years. Behind the 527 submissions were the financing needs of over 500 enterprises waiting to be met. In terms of the industry, the three key sectors of technology, manufacturing, and healthcare form the core supply force; in terms of region, leading economic provinces continue to drive the output of new economy enterprises; in terms of intermediaries, the dominant position of Chinese-funded forces in sponsorship further solidified.
It is worth emphasizing that the new regulation extending the application validity period from 6 months to 12 months will significantly reduce the risk of invalidation for submitting companies during the review process and the intermediary costs associated with rolling submissions, helping to improve the efficiency of converting submissions into listings. It is expected that the policy effects will become apparent in the fourth quarter of 2026 and 2027. For investors, the large number of submissions accumulated in the first eight months also indicates that the supply of new stocks on Hong Kong Stock Exchange will remain abundant in the next 12 to 18 months, and the ability to select stocks and price them will require greater depth of research by institutions.
