HONG KONG (Dow Jones Banking Intelligence) – Thailand’s Big C Supercenter PCL is planning to raise capital through the issue of new shares in a fairly modest private placement. Following the recent successful IPO of Tesco Lotus Retail Growth Freehold & Leasehold Property Fund, controlled by Tesco plc’s Thai unit, it should instead increase its free float through a larger, fully marketed offering, including a combination of new and old shares. read
The Hong Kong market for initial public offerings is as dull and dank as swamp water. Some deals have even been pulled, which means the line of listing applicants just gets longer. read
I was quoted in an article in the Financial Times by Paul J. Davies, Robert Cookson and Sarah Mishkin entitled “Investors hang fire over Asia’s IPO pipeline”, on 2 April 2012. read
I was interviewed this morning again on RTHK 3’s early morning radio programme “Hong Kong Today” by Andrew Wood on the subject of IPOs. read
HONG KONG (Dow Jones Banking Intelligence) – Despite a significant pipeline of deals, at this stage in the year ECM transactions in Asia remain very much characterized by binary outcomes. Large, eye- catching offerings generate significant amounts of investor demand, while less obvious – and perhaps more challenging – transactions (when they close) have posted poor returns for investors. read
League tables feature prominently in presentations drafted by investment banks for their corporate clients, as well as in the financial press. They provide readers with an indication of their market shares and rankings relative to those of other houses, and for a given region, country, industry sector, product – or a combination of the above. read
Readers may have noticed that IPO-book.com now includes a twitter feed for quick IPO and ECM news at the bottom of the home page. read
HONG KONG (Dow Jones Banking Intelligence) – Citigroup Inc.’s sale of its remaining stake in Housing Development Finance Corp (HDFC) comes as no surprise amid rising markets combined with a pressing need to find extra capital. Other Western firms have already been there in China over the last couple of years. Meanwhile Asian houses are seizing the opportunity to grow, on the back of their Western peers’ renewed asset dumps. read
