UPDATE 1-China gold miner Zijin's IPO 744 times subscribed
Sun December 21, 2003 11:51 PM ET
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By Katie Hunt
HONG KONG, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Chinese gold firm Fujian Zijin Mining Industry Co Ltd priced its IPO at the top end of its range on Monday and said its public offer was 744 times subscribed, making it the most popular listing here since 1997.
Fujian Zijin, the first gold mining firm to sell shares in Hong Kong, is the latest hot China offering to debut on the territory's market and traders are expecting sizzling gains of between 30 and 50 percent when its shares list on Tuesday.
"The demand is incredible. Gold prices are firm so it's underpinned by fundamentals," said Peter Lai, director at OCBC Securities. Gold prices are near an eight-year high.
Investor demand for Zijin's public subscription beat the recent initial public offering (IPO) by vehicle maker Great Wall Automobile Holding Co , in which retail buyers subscribed for 683 times the shares available. Its shares soared 28 percent on their first day of trade earlier this month.
The level of interest also surpasses that seen when tycoon Li Ka-shing listed his Internet firm tom.com Ltd at the tail end of the dot-com boom in 2000 but falls short of the record set by Beijing Enterprises Holdings Ltd , a conglomerate backed by the Chinese capital's city government.
The latter attracted orders for 1,276 times the shares on offer to retail investors in 1997.
GOLD FEVER
Due to the interest, Zijin lifted the retail portion of its offering to 50 percent of the stock from 10 percent. Zijin raised HK$1.15 billion ($147.44 million) by selling 348.3 million shares.
The company said in a statement it received 136,429 applications for a total of 25.9 billion H shares, equivalent to about 744.3 times the total number of public offer shares available.
The deal was priced at HK$3.30 per share, at the top of an indicated range, it said. The tranche reserved for institutional investors was 21.2 times subscribed, the firm said. Continued ... 1| 2 Next
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