Adaspace Technology, a Chinese company that builds satellites meant to run artificial intelligence models in orbit, closed its first day of trading in Hong Kong on Friday at HK$24.02, 3.5% below the HK$24.90 price at which it sold shares, according to market data from ETNet. The stock opened 1.85% below the offer price at HK$24.44 and finished lower still.

The weak start followed a pricing that already signaled limited demand. Adaspace sold its 30,121,000 H shares at the very bottom of its HK$24.90 to HK$33.20 range, raising HK$750.01 million in gross proceeds, according to its allotment announcement filed with the exchange on Thursday night. At the top of the range, the same number of shares would have brought in about HK$1 billion.

For investors in Asia, the result is a check on Hong Kong's run of Chinese deep-tech listings. Adaspace bills itself as the first Hong Kong stock to combine AI and commercial aerospace, yet it could not fill its book above the floor or hold its price through the first session. When Adaspace launched the offering on Nov. 5, its cornerstone commitments were already thin by recent standards.

Demand numbers behind the low-end price

The retail tranche of 3,012,100 shares drew 5,638 valid applications and was covered 3.43 times, the filing shows. That was not enough to trigger a reallocation of shares from the institutional book, so retail investors kept 10% of the deal. The international offering, placed with 60 investors, was 1.79 times subscribed.

The company did not exercise its option to enlarge the deal by up to 15%, and the underwriters made no over-allocation, so the over-allotment option will not be exercised, the filing says. Guotai Junan Capital was sole sponsor.

The book was also concentrated. One existing shareholder, Ye Guofu, received 7,088,400 shares, or 23.53% of all offer shares, under a waiver from the exchange that allowed allocations to current holders. The five largest placees together took 59.33% of the offer shares and the top 10 took 75.11%, according to the placee concentration table.

Two cornerstone investors, Kamshin and JinkoSolar Investment, bought 2,409,600 shares between them, 8% of the offering, which works out to about HK$60 million at the final price. JinkoSolar Investment is a close associate of two existing Adaspace shareholders, the filing says. Both cornerstones are locked up until May 12, 2027.

ETNet reported that the shares ended grey-market trading on Thursday evening at HK$27, 8.43% above the offer price, a premium that disappeared once official trading began.

What the money pays for

After estimated listing expenses of HK$98.25 million, net proceeds came to HK$651.76 million. That is about HK$120 million less than the HK$772.4 million the company had projected at the midpoint of the range, according to ETNet's summary of the prospectus, and the expenses equal about 13% of gross proceeds.

In a release distributed through ACN Newswire on listing day, Adaspace said it will spend the money on its "Star-Compute" constellation and space-based computing research, a Shenzhen center, satellite development, selective acquisitions and investments, debt repayment and working capital.

The company said revenue rose 27% in 2025 to RMB703 million, with AI computing satellites contributing RMB225 million, or 32% of the total. It reported an order backlog, as of October, for 114 AI satellites with a combined contract value of about RMB3.48 billion. Adaspace said it has launched 35 satellites, 29 of them AI satellites, and plans another 14 launches in the fourth quarter. Its long-term goal is a network of 2,800 AI computing satellites.

The same release conceded that space-based computing "remains at an early stage of commercialization."

Valuation and the lock-up calendar

With 602,419,740 shares in issue after the listing, the HK$24.90 offer price valued Adaspace at about HK$15 billion. Friday's close put that figure at roughly HK$14.5 billion.

Founder and chairman Lu Chuan controls 21.68% of the voting rights through three partnerships, making his group the single largest shareholder block, and pre-IPO investors hold another 73.32%. Under China's Company Law, all of those shares are locked up for one year, until Nov. 12, 2027, which leaves a small free float in the meantime.

Adaspace's release said the market expects the company could join the Hang Seng Composite Index and become eligible for Southbound Stock Connect trading in future index reviews if it meets the criteria. Inclusion in Stock Connect would let investors in mainland China buy the shares directly. The next date fixed on the calendar is the cornerstone lock-up expiry on May 12, 2027.