New Stock News | Zhaogang.com's Hong Kong IPO prospectus is invalid, the world's largest third-party steel trading digital platform

The Hong Kong IPO prospectus submitted by the Zhaogang Industry Internet Group (referred to as Zhaogang.com) on March 10, 2024 was valid for 6 months and expired on September 10. At the time of submission, Zhaogang.com's joint sponsors were Zhong Yin International Finance Limited, HSBC Corporate Finance (Hong Kong) Limited, and UBS Securities Hong Kong Limited. On March 10 of this year, Zhaogang.com re-disclosed its IPO documents to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in preparation for a listing through a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) merger with Aquila (07836). On August 31, 2023, Zhaogang.com announced that it would sign a merger agreement with Aquila Acquisition Corporation and submit a listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, which expired on February 29, 2024. The prospectus shows that Zhaogang.com was established in 2012 and provides a one-stop B2B comprehensive service covering the entire value chain of steel trading in China by connecting key participants in the steel industry to its digital platform. The services include online steel trading, logistics, warehousing and processing, financial technology solutions, SaaS products, and big data analytics. According to Zhaogang.com's information, the total trading volume increased from 35.6 million tons in 2021 to 49.0 million tons in 2023, with a compound annual growth rate of 17.3%. In addition, GMV increased from 187.2 billion yuan in 2021 to 195.5 billion yuan in 2023. Based on the 2022 steel trading volume, Zhaogang.com is the world's largest third-party digital platform for steel trading. As of the end of 2023, Zhaogang.com's digital platform connected over 12,600 registered sellers and over 177,000 registered buyers. Furthermore, among the top 500 buyers contributing to GMV in 2021, 91.8% of them continued to transact with Zhaogang.com in 2023. From 2021 to 2023, the average annual net cash retention rate for small and medium-sized enterprise buyers was 131.1% according to GMV calculations.