Singapore's AMTD Digital Goes Into Orbit in New York Trading

Shares of Hong Kong’s AMTD Digital surged more than 85% in US trading on Monday, prompting the digital financial services firm that’s backed by billionaire Li Ka-shing to issue a statement saying it wasn’t aware of material changes to its situation since its IPO a little more than two weeks ago.

The company’s American Depositary Shares (ADSs) have enjoyed a meteoric rise in volatile trading since it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange at $7.80 a share on July 15. It closed yesterday at $742, up almost 9,413%. The IPO raised $125 million.

The company’s shares continued to surge in pre-market trading today, climbing another 24% to $919.69, according to FXStreet.com.

Disrupting Traditional Banking

AMTD is backed by Li’s CK Hutchison and is focussed on Southeast Asia. It’s a fast-growing entity that’s putting together an effort to “disrupt traditional banking services across the region,” TechNode wrote in a July 6 article. Parent AMTD Group was founded by CK Hutchison in 2003 with AMTD Digital spun out in March, the article said.

One reason for the stock surge may be AMTD SpiderNet, which was launched in February and aims to be a digital space for entrepreneurs, a “super-connector” and a “fusion reactor for great minds and ideas,” according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

InvestorPlace says the excitement may be because SpiderNet is seen as a play on the so-called metaverse. It says the idea behind the platform “is to connect all AMTD’s financial operations and intellectual property into a controlled digital ecosystem.”

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SpiderNet operates across four business segments: digital financial services; SpiderNet ecosystem solutions; digital media, content, and marketing; and digital investments, the company says. Revenues come from fees and commissions levied on its digital financial service business and SpiderNet Ecosystem Solutions segment, it says.

Still, the drivers of the company’s dramatic stock surge have yet to be explained. The company’s statement noted “significant volatility in our ADS price and, also observed some very active trading volume.”

It said it would monitor the market closely for “any unusual trading activities or abnormalities,” and “continue to maintain our communication channel wide-open to the public through our Investor Relations Office.”