Since the door was opened for Chinese companies to list their shares in Switzerland last year, even the head of the Swiss bourse has been surprised at how popular the programme has proved to be. Nine companies have gone public in Zurich since the end of July, raising a total of $3.2 billion (CHF2.98 million) — far exceeding the total amount Chinese companies raised in the US in all of 2022. “I have to say I was a bit overwhelmed by how many and how fast this was going,” Jos Dijsselhof, chief executive of the Swiss Exchange (SIX), told Nikkei Asia in a recent interview. He was all the more surprised given that it was such a gloomy year for initial public offerings, with the global total value falling 71% from 2021 to $179.7 billion, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. The number of IPOs nearly halved to 1,671.