China funeral facilitator Fu Shou Yuan saw its shares recently rally to 7.04 Hong Kong dollars after being down 40%.
The shares of a China-based funeral company recently surged to a new yearly high following a marked rise in Covid infections. According to a CNBC report, Fu Shou Yuan International Group stock was trading at 7.04 Hong Kong dollars a pop late Friday. This rally represents an 80% increase in just two months and comes amid a new wave of Covid infections in China. After being down approximately 40% year-to-date in November, Fu Shou Yuan’s stock is now on course to attain a 15% year-to-date gain.
Recap of China Funeral Company Shares Listing HistoryFu Shou Yuan debuted back in 2013 and climbed as high as 66% in its Hong Kong trading debut. At the time of its listing entry, the company enjoyed backing from the Carlyle Group and hedge fund firm Farallon Investors. In 2010, Carlyle co-founder William Conway agreed to purchase $25 million in shares of the prominent China funeral operator before it went public. Conway arrived at this decision after visiting Fu Shou Yuan’s primary cemetery in Shanghai with a team of executives in December 2010.
At the time, the minority stake by Carlyle and Farallon Investors helped Fu Shou Yuan’s share price to 5.30 Hong Kong dollars. That price increase favorably compared with the company’s initial public offering (IPO) price of 3.33 Hong Kong dollars.
At the time of its Hong Kong public listing, Fu Shou Yuan’s IPO also experienced massive orders from small investors. Furthermore, the retail portion of orders from small investors was more than 681 times the available shares on offer.
Fu Shou Yuan’s stock had been on a downward trajectory from April 2021 to October this year. The reason for the slide was widespread Covid restrictions that China instituted at the time. However, after going through a lull in infection outbreaks since 2020, China is currently amid a fresh resurgence.
China CovidChina experienced a resurgence in Covid case numbers after abruptly suspending most of its control measures. However, despite widespread accounts of a spike in Covid-related deaths, the country’s official Covid death toll remains low. These low numbers could be a result of the nature of reportage from health authorities. For instance, Chinese health authorities re-defined Covid-related deaths to comprise only those who die from pneumonia or respiratory failure. Meanwhile, in contrast, a majority of other countries ascribe any death to Covid provided the virus played some factor.
In other related China Covid news, the East Asian nation’s National Health Commission recently announced it would stop infection publication. According to the State Council’s cabinet-level executive department, it planned to suspend publishing daily Covid numbers. The NHC statement read:
“Relevant COVID information will be published by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention for reference and research.”
However, the Commission did not specify the reasons for the change. Furthermore, the Chinese NHC did not provide details regarding the frequency of updated Covid information by its CDC.
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