Huakai Future (06132.HK) crashed 31% on its first trading day in Hong Kong, closing at HK$56 with a market cap of HK$4.1 billion, after a volatile dark pool session saw the stock surge nearly 95% before collapsing below its IPO price. The clinical-stage biotech, backed by CITIC Securities, has no approved drugs or product revenue, relying on IPO proceeds of about HK$1 billion to fund operations for roughly five more years.
A Rollercoaster Dark Pool and a Brutal Debut
On June 22, just hours before its official listing, Huakai Future's dark pool trading on Futu was a wild ride. The stock opened at HK$100.80, 23% above its HK$81.80 IPO price, and soared to a high of HK$159.60—a 95.1% gain—before plunging to HK$73.85, ending the session at HK$79.10, 3.3% below the offering price. The intraday swing of 104.83% trapped many latecomers: those who bought at the average dark pool price of HK$104.80 were already underwater by the close. The public debut was even worse, with shares opening lower and never recovering.
No Revenue, Heavy Losses, and a Cash Crunch
Founded in 2017 by a team of autoimmune, metabolic, and oncology experts, Huakai Future is a pre-revenue biotech. Its 2024 and 2025 revenues of RMB 1.8 million and RMB 12.98 million came entirely from licensing deals with Junshi Biosciences. The company's operating losses are widening: R&D spending jumped 47% to RMB 110 million in 2025, while administrative costs more than doubled to RMB 28.29 million, plus IPO expenses of RMB 16.03 million. Cash and equivalents dwindled to just RMB 3.72 million by end-2025, though financial assets of RMB 322 million bring total liquid resources to RMB 327 million. At the current burn rate of about RMB 200 million annually, the IPO cash extends the runway to roughly 5.75 years.
Pipeline Promise in Crowded Fields
Huakai Future's story hinges on three core candidates: HJ787 (a topical TYK2 inhibitor for atopic dermatitis), HJ178 (an oral GLP-1/GIP dual agonist for diabetes and obesity), and HJ891 (a KRAS G12C inhibitor for cancer). While HJ891 showed a 47.2% objective response rate in Phase I/IIa trials, the Chinese market for KRAS G12C inhibitors is only about RMB 200 million and already crowded with four approved drugs and 17 in development. HJ178 enters a field with 104 clinical-stage GLP-1 therapies in China, 19 of them oral. HJ787 faces 13 TYK2-targeting candidates in Phase II/III. None of these drugs are close to regulatory submission, though HJ891 is the most advanced.
Investors and the Real Winners
Over eight years, Huakai Future raised about RMB 619 million across six funding rounds. The earliest backer, SDIC Shanghai, invested at RMB 8.24 per share in 2017, an 88.4% discount to the IPO price, yielding an 8.6x return. Legend Capital's Junlian Xinkang holds 5.77% post-IPO. The IPO's cornerstone investors, including Chen Guangming's Rayliant Fund and Kaibo (backed by Orient Securities and Xuancheng state assets), subscribed for US$65 million (HK$509 million), or 45.7% of the offering, with a six-month lock-up.
A Scientist-Led Team from Di'ao
Founder Dr. Ji Jianxin, 50, a former executive vice president at Chengdu Di'ao Pharmaceutical Group, leads a team that largely defected from Di'ao. With a PhD from Hong Kong Polytechnic University and postdoctoral work at Vanderbilt, Dr. Ji holds 40+ publications and 30 patents. COO Yang Xiangyu and R&D Director Guo Na also hail from Di'ao, giving the company a deep-rooted scientific pedigree but no commercial track record.
Huakai Future's debut underscores the gamble on pre-revenue biotechs: hot pipelines can ignite dark pool euphoria, but the absence of revenue and thin float make for a fragile story. The real test lies in whether HJ891 can file for approval by late 2026, HJ787 can differentiate in a crowded TYK2 field, and HJ178 can stand out among 104 GLP-1 rivals.