Rosy HK debut for Babytree Group

Babytree Group, Chinese mainland's e-commerce platform on baby care and parenting, makes its debut in Hong Kong on Nov 27.

Alibaba-backed Babytree Group made a rosy start on its first day of trading on Tuesday in Hong Kong by debuting higher than its offering price.

The parenting website debuted at HK$6.91 ($0.88), higher than its initial public offering price of HK$6.80, and closed at HK$6.91 on Tuesday.

Fosun International, a Shanghai-based private conglomerate, owns 25 percent of the company and Chinese tech titan Alibaba owns 9.9 percent.

Wang Huainan, founder and CEO of Babytree, noted that the original purpose of going public was to have a better chance of providing quality service to families with babies.

"We care more about better opportunities in strategy, branding, talent and industrial consolidation after going public, as these factors determine whether we can serve young families in a better and more well-rounded way," he said.

Babytree, founded in 2006, is an e-commerce platform with functions ranging from offering parenting advice to selling baby care products. Last year, the platform's number of monthly active users hit 139 million.

The Chinese baby care market has maintained momentum thanks to the country's second-child policy.

A report with consultancy Frost & Sullivan found that young families are spending more with the compound growth rate hitting 15 percent from 2013 to 2017.