(Yicai Global) Dec. 8 -- JD Health International, China’s largest online pharmacy operator, soared 56 percent in its first day of trading in Hong Kong.

The shares [HKG: 6618] closed at HKD110 (USD14.19) each, after climbing as much as 76 percent. That gave the JD.Com spinoff a market capitalization of HKD344 billion (USD44.4 billion), six times the USD7.1 billion it was worth just a year ago.

The Beijing-based company raised USD3.5 billion, making it Hong Kong’s largest initial public offering of the year.

The strong market debut likely bodes well for the IPOs of other units of JD.Com, China’s second-largest e-commerce player. Financial technology services provider JD Digital Technology filed in September to raise CNY20 billion (USD3 billion) in a Shanghai listing, while JD Logistics is seeking a USD40 billion valuation via an IPO, according to a Bloomberg News report last month.

JD Health sold 381.9 million shares at HKD70.58 apiece, the top end of the marketed range.Six cornerstone investors, including Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC, Hillhouse Capital, and BlackRock, subscribed to as much as USD1.35 billion in stock.

Apart from online drug sales, JD Health also provides online medical consultations. China’s online healthcare providers such as JD Health and rivals Alibaba Health Information Technology, Tencent-backed We Doctor Holdings and Ping An Healthcare and Technology have benefited as patients warmed to using digital medical services during the coronavirus outbreak.

JD Health’s IPO prospectus said it had 72.5 million annual active users as of June 30, a 36 percent increase from a year earlier.

The company’s first-half revenue jumped76 percent to CNY8.8 billion (USD1.35 billion) from a year earlier, while its loss widened to CNY5.4 billion from CNY971.8 million (USD149 million) for the whole of last year.

Last November, JD Health was valued at about USD7.1 billion after securing USD931 million in an A-round of financing led by JD.Com and investment banker CICC Capital.

Editor: Emmi Laine