RELX More Than Doubles Value in Opening IPO

Chinese e-cigarette maker RLX Technology, parent to the RELX brand, jumped 146 percent in its trading debut after raising $1.4 billion in its U.S. initial public offering.

RLX Technology’s American depositary shares closed at $29.51 Friday, giving the company a market value of about $46 billion. Backed by Sequoia Capital China, the company sold 116.5 million shares for $12 a piece on Thursday after marketing them for $8 to $10.

The IPO was led by Citigroup Inc. and China Renaissance Holdings Ltd. The company’s ADS, each representing one ordinary share, are trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol RLX.

The IPO, the first major U.S. listing this year by a China-based company, signals continuing investor demand, according to Bloomberg.

RLX, founded in 2018, is China’s largest e-cigarette maker with 62.6 percent of the country’s market, according to a report by China Insights Consultancy cited in the company’s IPO prospectus.

China is the world’s largest potential vaping market, with an estimated 286.7 million adult smokers in 2019, RLX said in its prospectus. But vaping products only have a 1.2 percent penetration rate, compared with 32.4 percent in the U.S.