By Sophie Yu and Scott Murdoch
HONG KONG (Reuters) -Trip.com Group shares opened at HK$281 ($36.15) apiece as they debuted in Hong Kong on Monday, up 4.85% from their secondary listing offer price.
The China-headquartered group sold its shares at HK$268 each to raise $1.09 billion.
The travel and accommodation booking business had flagged in its launch documents the shares would not be priced above HK$333 each, which would have raised $1.35 billion.
But the indicated price for the stock fell in the wake of a 5.4% slide in Trip.com's Nasdaq-listed shares during the session last week when the Hong Kong deal was being finalised.
The overseas listed stock has, however, gained 8.9% this year.
James Liang, co-founder and executive chairman of Trip.com Group, said domestic tourism has been improving gradually in China as the country has recovered from coronavirus.
In the recent three-day Qingming holiday, Chinese travellers made 102 million trips, equivalent to 94.5% of the trips made over the holiday in 2019, official data shows.
Though overseas trip numbers disappeared, Liang said domestic trips were more profitable for the group because the margin of international flights was relatively low.
"If people use the money instead on domestic hotels, it is not bad for our profit even though the turnover is smaller," Liang told Reuters.
Trip.com's Hong Kong shares were trading at HK$276 by 0204 GMT, while the Hang Seng Index was slightly down.