Successfully closing IPOs is challenging in these tricky markets. Hong Kong has had its fair share of new listings pulled, delayed or altogether indefinitely postponed over the last year or so. The Securities and Futures Commission’s response has been to turn the screws on new issue sponsors and, now, on auditors. read
Amid an 85% year-on-year decline in global IPO volumes, clean energy firm Huadian Fuxin is set to price an initial public offering of up to US$389 million equivalent (including a 15% over-allotment option) on June 20. As a concession to current volatility, the deal was cut from an original US$1 billion. read
Graff Diamonds, a high-end jeweller, was supposed to have turned around Hong Kong’s moribund IPO market. It was not to be. Instead the company pulled its US$1 billion-equivalent listing on 30 May, piling more disappointment on an already massively downbeat market plagued by serial deal cancellations. What went wrong?
Inner Mongolia Yitai Coal (which is quite a bit of a mouthful) has started investor education for its IPO of up to US$1.5 billion equivalent in Hong Kong. If successful, it would become the first B-share entity to list there. read
I was interviewed this morning by anchor Bryan Curtis on Hong Kong’s RTHK 3 radio “Money For Nothing” programme. The topic was IPOs, with a focus on the Facebook flotation on NASDAQ, the aborted Graff Diamonds IPO in Hong Kong – and market conditions generally. read
There has been much talk over the past few weeks about the proposal by the Securities and Futures Commission to strengthen the regulation of sponsors of initial public offerings. Such sponsors, investment banks or brokers, oversee a firm’s application to list on the exchange. read
I participated in a panel discussion on Hong Kong’s RTHK 3 radio “Backchat” programme today, on the subject of Facebook’s IPO. read
HONG KONG (Dow Jones Banking Intelligence) – China Nonferrous Metal Mining (Group) Co. Ltd. (CNMC) is braving the Hong Kong IPO market amid weakened investor sentiment. The offer, which has been reduced in size and boasts a reasonable valuation, could still struggle. read
I was interviewed live today in CNBC’s Hong Kong studio on IPOs in Asia, in particular on the proposed flotations of Graff Diamonds and Formula One in Hong Kong and Singapore, respectively. read
China Everbright Bank, the country’s 13th largest bank as ranked by assets, is set to raise up to US$2.5 billion in what could be the largest initial public offering in Asia, so far in 2012. read
