Proceeds from Hong Kong technology, media and telecom initial public offerings fell by 97% year over year in the first half of 2022 as the number of listings decreased.

Two TMT companies raised a total of $220 million in the first half, down from $7.74 billion in the same period a year earlier, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Overall listings on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange also fell to 19 in the first half of 2022, compared to 41 in the first half of 2021. Weak stock market sentiment and ongoing restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic have put the Asian financial hub's exchange under pressure.

The two TMT companies that went public in the first half of this year were consumer contact solutions provider TI Cloud Inc. and SoftBank Group Corp.-backed AI startup Qingdao AInnovation Technology Group Co. Ltd. TI Cloud raised $71.3 million from its June 29 market debut. Qingdao AInnovation Technology Group raised $151.2 million from its listing in January.

The Qingdao AInnovation Technology Group's share sale follows the debut of a larger Chinese AI firm, SenseTime Group Inc., which listed in December 2021 and raised $740.7 million.

China proposed to tighten scrutiny of overseas listing plans in December 2021, under the draft titled "Regulations on the Administration of Network Data Security." The rules, which went into effect Feb. 15, require tech firms with more than 1 million users looking to list in places outside Mainland China, including Hong Kong, to apply for cybersecurity inspections.

Hong Kong has yet to see the listings of two big Chinese tech companies: TikTok Inc.-owner Beijing ByteDance Telecommunications Co. Ltd. and Ant Group Co. Ltd., the fintech subsidiary of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Both companies have eyed the Asian financial hub as a listing destination.

Ant Group recently received the go-ahead to revive its IPO plans in Hong Kong and Shanghai after its IPO was pulled by Chinese regulators in November 2020, according to a June 9 Reuters report.

Currently, there are no TMT companies that have filed preliminary listing applications, or PHIPs, for approval by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. A PHIP is a "near-final draft listing document" and must be published before any bookbuilding commences.

Geopolitical tensions, rising interest rates and a high level of volatility in the stock markets have impacted the global IPO market at large. Across geographies and industries, Market Intelligence counted 398 IPOs in the second quarter with an aggregate transaction value of $39.71 billion, down from 772 offerings worth $145.82 billion in the prior-year period.

* Learn more about Qingdao AInnovation Technology Group's IPO on S&P Capital IQ Pro. * Use our Transactions Statistics page to run a custom screen of IPOs by industry or geography.