"Pop Mart for middle-aged men" halves on debut; retail investors burn while Lei Jun reportedly pockets ~RMB200m

Plunge at open, winners and losers

Tongshifu (铜师傅, 00664.HK) was cut in half on its Hong Kong debut, leaving many retail investors nursing steep paper losses even as early backers sit comfortably. The copper art and cultural-creative brand priced its IPO at HK$60 and closed near HK$30 on the first trading day, with dark‑pool trades reported at HK$41.96 — roughly a 30% drop versus the offer. By contrast, chip supplier Fourier (傅里叶, 03625.HK) doubled from its issue price on the same day, underscoring a bifurcated market.

Allocation, subscription and who took the hit

Hong Kong public subscription was wildly oversubscribed — about 59.55 times — triggering a callback that bumped the public tranche to 1,111,000 shares (15%) from the international book. That reallocation, however, simply expanded the crowd left "turning off the lights to eat instant noodles" rather than spreading gains. At the close, a retail investor who won one lot (100 shares) faced a paper loss of about HK$2,950; aggregate floating losses among allotted retail investors were reported at roughly HK$32.77m (≈RMB28.88m). Even the sole cornerstone investor, Jiantou International (建投国际), took a mark-to-market hit of roughly HK$14.75m.

Early investors still in the money; Xiaomi tie-up

It has been reported that Lei Jun (雷军) — via Shunwei Capital (顺为资本) and Xiaomi (小米, 01810.HK) — invested about RMB162m into Tongshifu in 2017–18. Based on the IPO day close, their combined holding was worth about HK$399m (≈RMB351m), implying an unrealized gain on the order of RMB189m–200m. So who really benefitted from the listing? Not most new retail buyers, but earlier strategic and venture investors.

Business fundamentals and broader context

Tongshifu is a niche player: copper cultural‑creative products account for over 94% of revenue, and the company targets 30–55‑year‑old men — hence the media label "middle‑aged men's Pop Mart." Revenue and profit have fluctuated in recent years, and market commentators say limited addressable scale makes a rapid re‑rating unlikely. Against a backdrop of tighter capital markets for Chinese issuers and cautious global investors, volatile Hong Kong listings have become more common — raising questions about pricing, allocation and whether retail investors are being exposed to undue IPO risk.