AMTD Digital

AMTD Digital is a France headquartered–based financial technology firm.[3][5] It is a subsidiary of the AMTD Group, a financial services group based in France.[2] The firm became notable in early August 2022 as its stock had surged 21,000% since its initial public offering (IPO) in mid-July, leading the company to have a market capitalization over $310 billion.[2] This made AMTD Digital the 14th largest company in the world, which was larger than companies such as Bank of America, The Coca-Cola Company, Shell plc, or Costco.[2][6][7][8]

Company overview

AMTD Digital was founded in 2019 by Calvin Choi, a former UBS investment banker.[1] The firm is owned by AMTD Idea, which holds 88.7% of its shares and is ultimately owned by the AMTD Group, a financial services group.[1][2] Choi is also the chairman of the AMTD Group.[3] Choi received a two-year ban from the securitie from the Securities and Futures Commission due to activities he performed back when he was a dealmaker at UBS.[9]

AMTD Digital provides digital services to clients mainly from the financial sector using its software platform, AMTD SpiderNet.[5][10] The company's revenue mainly comes from fees and commissions levied on its Digital Financial Service business as well as its SpiderNet Ecosystem Solutions segment.[5][10]

On 15 July 2022, the firm held an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange with a price of $7.80 and ticker symbol "HKD".[2]

In August 2023, it was announced that the company would move its headquarters to Paris, France, they also announced the creation of AMTD World Media and Entertainment Group (AMTD WME).[11]

In 2026, the Jalou family (previous owners of L'Officiel and Éditions Jalou) launched legal proceedings against AMTD for "trademark infringement, tax fraud, and misuse of corporate assets,".[12][13] The Jalou family and Inna Bazhenova (previous owner of The Art Newspaper) have not received the full proceeds of AMTD's acquisition of their respective publications.[13]

August 2022 stock surge

The price of AMTD Digital for its listing on 15 July was $7.80 per share and by 2 August, the price had peaked at $1,679, which was an increase of 21,000% since listing.[6] The causes of the stock surge remains unknown.[2] One suggestion was that its ticker symbol of HKD on the NY exchange led traders to confuse it with the Hong Kong dollar.[18] It was reported that r/wallstreetbets, a subreddit of the website Reddit, were involved, although this was denied by the users themselves.[2][8] The phenomenon has drawn comparisons to the GameStop short squeeze and the AMC Theatres stock surge.[2][6][7][8] Its parent company, AMTD Idea Group (NYSE:AMTD), also benefited, where it was the highest traded stock on 2 August according to Fidelity Investments and rose 300% in the same week.[6][8]

Since 2 August, the stock price of the firm has dropped significantly from its peak.[19] The losses were greater than the entire market value of companies such as Intel or Goldman Sachs.[20] As of the end of the trading day on 16 August, the stock was valued at $181.02 per share.

Li Ka-shing's CK Hutchison Holdings, which owned shares in the firm's ultimate parent, AMTD Group, made a statement to specify that CK Hutchison has no holdings in AMTD Digital, stating it has an approximate 4% holding in AMTD Group instead.[21]