Head of Research, IPOs & Placements, Aequitas Research

Sumeet Singh

Head of Research, IPOs & Placements

IPOs and Placements coverage across Asia Pacific

Aequitas Research

We cover all listing across the Asia Pacific along with follow-up placements. As of Dec 2020, our team had covered 539 IPOs with a hit rate of 73.5% and 685 placements with a hit rate of 66.8%.

We combine fundamental bottom-up views with our proprietary quantitative framework to provide a holistic coverage across new listings and placements. Our coverage includes pre-IPO notes before the deal is launched, follow-up analysis once the deal is live and post-listing trading analysis as well.

Event-Driven

<ul>
<li>
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/fwd-group-holdings-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:34332:1" rel="noopener">FWD Group Holdings (1828 HK)</a>, a pan-Asian life insurer founded by Richard Li, raised around US$442m in its HK IPO in July 2025.  Its IPO-linked lockup will expire soon.</li>
<li>FWD is a pan-Asia life insurer operating in ten markets including Hong Kong (and Macau), Thailand (and Cambodia), Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia.</li>
<li>In this note, we will talk about the lockup dynamics and possible placement.</li>
</ul>



FWD Group Holdings (1828 HK), a pan-Asian life insurer founded by Richard Li, raised around US$442m in its HK IPO in July 2025.  Its IPO-linked lockup will expire soon.
FWD is a pan-Asia life insurer operating in ten markets including Hong Kong (and Macau), Thailand (and Cambodia), Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia.
In this note, we will talk about the lockup dynamics and possible placement.


FWD IPO Lockup - US$1.9bn Cornerstone and Pre-IPO Investor Release

Equity Capital Markets

<ul>
<li>Aequitas Research's weekly update on the IPOs, placements, lockup expiry and other ECM linked events that were covered by the team over the past week.</li>
<li>On the IPO front, the market didn't appear to be in a mood to for a customary slowdown at the start of the year.</li>
<li>On the placements front, issuers and shareholders have started the new year with a bang, with deals launched across regions.</li>
</ul>


Aequitas Research's weekly update on the IPOs, placements, lockup expiry and other ECM linked events that were covered by the team over the past week.
On the IPO front, the market didn't appear to be in a mood to for a customary slowdown at the start of the year.
On the placements front, issuers and shareholders have started the new year with a bang, with deals launched across regions.


Aequitas: ECM Weekly (12 January 2026) - Biren, MiniMax, Gigadevice, Omnivision, Busy Ming, HPSP, GF

HK/China Healthcare Analyst (ex-Fosun Pharma)

Xinyao (Criss) Wang

FWD Group Holdings / Equity Capital Markets

<ul>
<li>Turning losses around in 2024 relied on capital market recovery and adjustment of accounting standards. If investment returns fluctuate or premium growth slows down, profits may again come under pressure.</li>
<li>The excessive goodwill of insurance companies is essentially "overdrawing the current valuation with future expectations".Whether goodwill can be transformed into actual synergy effects is the key to determining long-term value. </li>
<li>The market usually gives lower valuation to companies with high goodwill. FWD relies on debt to provide funding for working capital/acquisition financing. Valuation of FWD should be lower than peers.</li>
</ul>


Turning losses around in 2024 relied on capital market recovery and adjustment of accounting standards. If investment returns fluctuate or premium growth slows down, profits may again come under pressure.
The excessive goodwill of insurance companies is essentially "overdrawing the current valuation with future expectations".Whether goodwill can be transformed into actual synergy effects is the key to determining long-term value. 
The market usually gives lower valuation to companies with high goodwill. FWD relies on debt to provide funding for working capital/acquisition financing. Valuation of FWD should be lower than peers.


Pre-IPO FWD Group Holdings (PHIP Updates) - The Pain Points and the Outlook

<ul>
<li>
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/fwd-group-holdings-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:34332:1" rel="noopener">FWD Group Holdings (1828 HK)</a>, a pan-Asian life insurer founded by Richard Li, raised around US$442m in its HK IPO.</li>
<li>FWD is a pan-Asia life insurer operating in ten markets including Hong Kong (and Macau), Thailand (and Cambodia), Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia.</li>
<li>We looked at the company’s past performance and valuations in our previous notes. In this note we talk about the trading dynamics.</li>
</ul>



FWD Group Holdings (1828 HK), a pan-Asian life insurer founded by Richard Li, raised around US$442m in its HK IPO.
FWD is a pan-Asia life insurer operating in ten markets including Hong Kong (and Macau), Thailand (and Cambodia), Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia.
We looked at the company’s past performance and valuations in our previous notes. In this note we talk about the trading dynamics.


US-EU Index Rebalances / Quantitative Researcher, ORTEX

Dimitris Ioannidis

US-EU Index Rebalances / Quantitative Researcher

Global Financial Data and Analytics Platform

ORTEX

ORTEX is a global financial data and analytics platform providing real-time securities lending and short interest data, index rebalance data, holdings and insider transactions, trading signals, corporate actions and news,  stock machine learning and factor scores and other analytics. The majority of the data are downloadable and accessible through APIs.

Index Rebalance

<ul>
<li>
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/fwd-group-holdings-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:34332:1" rel="noopener">FWD Group Holdings (1828 HK)</a> fails to meet the minimum free float thresholds of both Global indices prior to the IPO lock-up expiry.</li>
<li>The security is expected to be added to Global All-World at the September 2026 review following the 6-month lock-up expiry.</li>
<li>The security is likely to remain excluded from Global Standard even after the lock-up expiry due to insufficient float cap.</li>
</ul>



FWD Group Holdings (1828 HK) fails to meet the minimum free float thresholds of both Global indices prior to the IPO lock-up expiry.
The security is expected to be added to Global All-World at the September 2026 review following the 6-month lock-up expiry.
The security is likely to remain excluded from Global Standard even after the lock-up expiry due to insufficient float cap.


FWD Group Holdings (1828 HK): Low Free Float Delays and Limits Global Index Inclusion

Hong Kong

FWD Group Holdings Limited offers insurance services. The Company provides life insurance, health insurance, and other related products. FWD Group Holdings conducts businesses throughout Hong Kong.

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FWD Group Holdings (1828 HK)

FWD IPO Lockup - US$1.9bn Cornerstone and Pre-IPO Investor Release

FWD Group Holdings (1828 HK), a pan-Asian life insurer founded by Richard Li, raised around US$442m in its HK IPO in July 2025. Its IPO-linked...

Sumeet Singh

Aequitas: ECM Weekly (12 January 2026) - Biren, MiniMax, Gigadevice, Omnivision, Busy Ming, HPSP, GF

Aequitas Research's weekly update on the IPOs, placements, lockup expiry and other ECM linked events that were covered by the team over the past week.

Sumeet Singh

Pre-IPO FWD Group Holdings (PHIP Updates) - The Pain Points and the Outlook

Based on IPO pricing of HK$38, P/B is 1x, lower than AIA (2.3x), Prudential (1.8x).But if based on embedded value (EV), P/EV of FWD, AIA,...

Xinyao (Criss) Wang

FWD IPO Trading - Tepid Demand

FWD Group Holdings (1828 HK), a pan-Asian life insurer founded by Richard Li, raised around US$442m in its HK IPO. In this note, we talk about the...

Sumeet Singh

FWD Group Holdings (1828 HK): Low Free Float Delays and Limits Global Index Inclusion

FWD Group falls short of minimum free float requirements prior to the lock-up expiry. It is expected to be added to Global All-World in September...

Dimitris Ioannidis

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