Spar Shandong operators, Jiajiayue Group, who became SPAR International’s first retail partner in China in 2004, have launched an initial public offering (IPO) which saw the company listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
Jiajiayue issued 90m shares priced at 13,64 yuan per share to raise 1,23bnn yuan ($178,12m). In late November, interest from investors saw the online portion of the IPO oversubscribed 4,407 times. The listing on the main A-Share exchange in China saw trading activity begin immediately after the opening on Tuesday ending 43% up on the first day of trading.
The market funding will be used to strengthen the business further by financing new store openings and existing store upgrades, developing distribution centres and logistics infrastructure and enhancing the existing technology and IT infrastructure.
Jiajiayue was the first Spar partner in China and opened its first store in 2005 in the city of Weihai, north east China. Since then, Spar China has opened 360 stores with nearly 1,000,000sq m of selling space in eight provinces, employing over 30,000 people. It also operates eight distribution centres delivering across 50 cities.
Speaking at the launch,…