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Strategies & Market Trends : China Warehouse- More Than Crockery -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RealMuLan who wrote (1688)	12/4/2003 1:12:20 PM
From: RealMuLan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6370

Chinese giants Air China, Bank of China join queue for public listing By Roland Lim, Channel NewsAsia Related News » • Air China invites bids for Hong Kong IPO in 2004: report HONG KONG : Two more giant Chinese state-owned firms have unveiled listing plans: Air China and the country's second-largest lender, Bank of China. China's flagship airline is reportedly planning a US$500 million initial public offer next year in Hong Kong. Advertisement Bankers have been invited to bid to underwrite the offer, expected to give Air China a market capitalisation of up to two billion dollars, in line with listed airlines China Eastern and China Southern. China Life Insurance, possibly the largest IPO in the world this year at over US$3 billion, is on its road-show this week. Selling life insurance to the world's most populace country makes it a potentially tempting prospect for investors. China Life follows on from a successful listing of another insurance giant, PICC Property and Casualty, last month. "They will receive a very strong response because investors have been very happy with previous IPOs. PICC has been very strong, and basically very IPO has brought investors profit. They are very keen to subscribe in these coming IPOs," said Alex Wong, director of RexCapital Asset Management. "Valuations actually in the China sector have risen quite a lot and make these IPOs look a little underpriced, so the response will be very strong." China's fast growing car-making sector is also in the spotlight, with Great Wall Automobile, a maker of trucks and sports-utility vehicles, coming on stream with a US$196 million listing at the same time as China Life. And while it may be some time away, the country's largest forex bank, Bank of China, which has already listed its Hong Kong operations, is seeking a public listing in China come 2005. The IPO trend for 2004, after the opening up of its insurance sector, could well be the Big Four banks in China that have yet to be listed. "After banks clear up the bad debt problems, they'll probably be listing prospects for China because the banking industry will be the likely industry to open up later on and the listing exercise will help the four banks to increase their competitiveness," said Mr Wong. The reform of China's banking system is seen as crucial to ensuring the sustainability of China's robust economic growth and eventual floating of its currency. - CNA channelnewsasia.com