On April 28th, the optical computing chip company Xizhi Technology was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with the opening price rising by more than 380% compared to the issue price. ICBC Wealth Management is one of the cornerstone investors of this company, subscribing to $2.5 million worth of shares at an issue price of HKD 183.2 per share.

Xizhi Technology is a new aspect of the collective influx of bank wealth management subsidiaries into the Hong Kong stock market this year.

Since 2025, the equity investment channels of bank wealth management subsidiaries have continued to expand, and Hong Kong stock IPOs have become the core direction for top institutions to increase product returns. Top institutions quickly increased their layout efforts, and institutions such as ICBC Wealth Management, CMB Wealth Management, and China Post Wealth Management participated in the IPOs of multiple semiconductor and AI companies as cornerstone investors.

According to publicly available data, as of May 20, 2026, ICBC Wealth Management has participated in a total of 17 Hong Kong stock IPO investments within the year, with a 100% success rate and a weighted return on investment exceeding 100%. During the same period, according to Choice data, as of May 20, 2026, 17 out of 55 new Hong Kong stocks had current stock prices below their issue prices, with a break rate of approximately 31%.

In the same market, Quansheng and 30% Breakout coexist, but the difference lies in which companies the money is invested in.

The rewards of choosing the right track

In 2025, a total of 106 new stocks will be listed on the main board of the Hong Kong stock market, raising a total of approximately HKD 285.7 billion for the year, returning to the top spot in global IPO fundraising after a six-year hiatus (according to Wind data).

Entering 2026, the momentum will not diminish, with 40 new stocks raising approximately HKD 109.9 billion in the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of 489%. UBS Group China President Hu Zhilu predicted in January this year that there will be 150 to 200 Hong Kong listed companies in 2026, and the fundraising amount is expected to exceed HKD 300 billion. As Hong Kong IPOs continue to increase in volume, the composition of listed companies is also undergoing changes.

Among the companies listed in Hong Kong, semiconductor AI、 The proportion of new energy has significantly increased, and the cornerstone investment direction of top global asset management institutions is highly consistent with it. According to LiveReport's big data statistics, the total cornerstone investment in Hong Kong stocks reached HKD 45.675 billion in the first quarter of 2026, an increase of over 7 times compared to the same period last year.

BlackRock, Temasek, UBS, Morgan Stanley and other institutions are densely appearing on the cornerstone list of hard technology projects.

The choice of industry largely determines the level of revenue from new product launches. The first day performance of new stocks listed during the same period showed a significant gap between hard technology, consumer, and resource categories.

The investment list of ICBC Wealth Management reflects this differentiation.

According to publicly available data, out of the 17 Hong Kong IPO investments made by ICBC Wealth Management this year, 7 were made as cornerstone investors, focusing on the semiconductor, new energy, and high-end manufacturing sectors.

Xizhi Technology, a leading domestic optical computing chip company, has laid out three major directions: optoelectronic hybrid integration, high-speed optical interconnection, and next-generation optical computing. Its initial public offering rose by over 380%. Sige New Energy, focusing on distributed energy storage system (DESS) solutions, closed up 103.42% on the first day.

According to Choice data, as of May 20, 2026, Changguang Chenxin, a leading domestic technology CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) image sensing chip company, has undertaken multiple national level scientific research projects, with a first day increase of 75.53% and a cumulative increase of 167.05%, calculated based on its return rate since listing (post compounding). Biren Technology, a domestic GPU (graphics processing unit) enterprise, has seen a cumulative increase of 168.62%. Zhaoyi Innovation (3986. HK), a leading domestic storage chip company, has seen a cumulative increase of 421.05%.

The AI direction has also yielded fruitful results: MINIMAX has accumulated a growth rate of 415.15%, Zhipu has accumulated a growth rate of 1126.33%, Yingsi Intelligent (3696. HK), as a representative enterprise in the AI pharmaceutical field, has accumulated a growth rate of 100.00%, and Yitai Technology (7666. HK) has accumulated a growth rate of 64.48%.

Domestic storage, optical computing GPU、PCB、 Chips, energy storage, AI big models, and AI pharmaceuticals, according to public data, ICBC Wealth Management's investment direction this year is all focused on these core areas of new quality productivity, which happen to be the sectors with the most concentrated gains in the Hong Kong IPO market since 2025.

All 17 investments were profitable, which is a systematic result of accurate track judgment.

To understand the value of this achievement, it is necessary to understand the operational methods of cornerstone investors.

The issuance of new shares in Hong Kong stocks is usually divided into two parts: international placement and public offering. International placement is aimed at institutional investors and accounts for about 90% of the total issuance volume; The public offering is aimed at retail investors, accounting for only about 10%. Cornerstone Investors are the earliest participants in international placements. They sign subscription agreements with issuers before roadshows, subscribe to fixed shares at the final issue price, and accept a mandatory lock up period of at least 6 months. The subscription amount, lock up period, and other information must be publicly disclosed in the prospectus.

Unlike Anchor Investors, cornerstone investors' shares are protected by legal agreements, but at the cost of higher risk exposure: the issue price is not determined at the time of signing and cannot be sold within six months after listing.

Choosing the right target yields considerable returns; Wrong choice, can only passively bear losses within six months.

According to publicly available data, none of the seven projects in which ICBC Wealth Management participated as a cornerstone in 2026 incurred losses. In a market environment with a break rate of 31%, the investment research team's concentrated bet on hard technology is the key to this record breaking success.

Purchase from institutional allocation starting at 1 yuan

For ordinary investors, the high returns of Hong Kong stock market IPOs are visible, but their participation channels are very limited. The cornerstone and anchor shares in international allocation are aimed at institutional investors, with funding thresholds of tens of millions of dollars.

The public offering is aimed at retail investors, but the shares only account for about 10% of the total issuance, and the subscription competition is very fierce. Taking the Hong Kong IPO of Haitian Flavor Industry, which went public in June this year, as an example, the subscription multiple for the public offering reached 918.15 times, and even if ordinary investors participated, the probability of winning the lottery was extremely low.

The emergence of the "fixed income+Hong Kong IPO" strategy has opened up an indirect path for ordinary investors to participate. The bottom position of this type of product is mainly based on deposits and high-grade credit bonds, controlling net asset value fluctuations; At the same time, allocate a portion of the positions to participate in the selected Hong Kong IPO projects and obtain excess returns. After investors purchase such wealth management products, they indirectly participate in the Hong Kong stock market's IPO by leveraging the institution's allocation qualifications and investment research capabilities.

The Zhiyue series of ICBC Wealth Management is currently the most complete product line to implement this strategy.

According to publicly available data (as of May 22, 2026), the Zhiyue series has issued 5 closed-end products, of which 3 have completed profit taking, with the highest annualized return rate reaching 11.88%. After triggering the profit taking clause, it has locked in profits for investors in advance. Since the establishment of the open product, the annualized return rate has been 10.37%, with the maximum drawdown controlled at 68BP (1BP=0.01 percentage points). The past performance of financial products does not represent their future performance and does not equal the actual returns of financial products. Investment should be cautious

Some products of the Zhiyue series are sold to ordinary individual investors through online commercial banking channels, with a minimum purchase price of 1 yuan.

In the past, only private banking clients were able to access new returns on Hong Kong stocks, but now ordinary investors can also participate in wealth management products with the same strategy.

Zeng Gang, director of the Shanghai Finance and Development Laboratory, believes that the participation of bank wealth management subsidiaries in the new market has formed a pattern of "pioneers leading and most institutions following", and the demonstration effect of top institutions is driving the industry to form a consensus.

From the supply side, the project reserves for Hong Kong IPOs are still abundant.

By the end of 2025, there will be over 316 listed companies on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and by early 2026, the number will further increase to over 500. According to the research of Huatai Securities' strategy team, nearly 80% of Hong Kong stock IPOs in the first quarter of 2026 will raise funds from A+H listed and hard technology companies.

Currently, only about 10 of the approximately 30 bank wealth management subsidiaries have registered as offline investors, and even fewer have actually participated in cornerstone investments in the Hong Kong stock market. ICBC Wealth Management has been deeply involved in the IPO field of Hong Kong stocks for 7 years.

ICBC Wealth Management has verified a feasible path with its 17 perfect records since the beginning of this year: concentrating investment research resources on the direction of new quality productivity, deeply participating in the Hong Kong stock listing of hard technology enterprises through cornerstone investment, and then delivering this ability to ordinary investors through "fixed income+" products.

This is a noteworthy sample in the process of bank wealth management transitioning from pure fixed income to equity strategy.