China's CICC to launch US$800m Hong Kong listing next week: IFR

OCT 20, 201511:12 PM

[BEIJING] China International Capital Corp (CICC), the country's top domestic investment bank, is set to launch an initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong next week, seeking to raise about US$800 million, IFR reported on Tuesday.

CICC is backed by private equity firm KKR & Co, TPG Capital and Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC Ltd.

The bank was originally targeting US$1 billion from the listing but decided to cut the size as it did not want to sell too many shares at a relatively low valuation, IFR, a Thomson Reuters publication, said.

New shares will make up 90 per cent of those on offer with the other 10 per cent coming from shares to be sold by China's National Social Security Fund.

CICC plans to use the funds to expand its equity sales and trading and investment management businesses.

Government-controlled CICC made its name by taking some of China's largest state-owned enterprises onto the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges. CICC was helped by the connections of former CEO Levin Zhu, the son of former premier Zhu Rongji, who resigned from the lender last year.

CICC will take orders from investors from Oct 26-30, the price will be set on Oct 30 and trading will commence on Nov 9, IFR reported.

A spokeswoman for CICC declined to comment.

REUTERS