Staff reporter

Chinese bubble tea chain Gu Ming's initial public offering opened yesterday in Hong Kong and pulled in least HK$778 million from local investors, making the retail tranche nearly five times oversubscribed.

Gu Ming is offering shares in a price range between HK$8.68 and HK$9.94, with a minimum investment of HK$4,016.10 per lot for 400 shares, and plans to raise up to HK$1.58 billion in the IPO.

It has introduced a number of cornerstone investors, including Huang River Investment, which is wholly owned by Tencent (0700), and LVC, a private equity firm that invests in NetEase Cloud Music (9899).