Reuters reported that China diversified clean-energy firm Huadian Fuxin Energy Corp has cut the size of its planned Hong Kong initial public offering by nearly two thirds to USD 340 million, underscoring a weak global economic environment and tepid demand for new listings.

Choppy stock markets have resulted in Asians IPOs worth nearly USD 8 billion being pulled this year including the USD 1 billion Hong Kong listing of high-end jeweler Graff Diamonds late last month.

According to a term sheet which if completed would be among Asia bigger new listings so far this year that Huadian Fuxin plans to raise up to USD 340 million from its IPO. It was previously aiming to raise about USD 940 million.

British retailer Tesco Plc USD 600 million IPO of its Thailand unit property fund is the biggest Asian IPO this year followed by the USD 580 million offering of oil explorer Sunshine Oilsands Ltd in Hong Kong and the USD 500 million listing of Philippine banking group GT Capital Holdings Inc.

The smaller-sized IPOs in 2012 underscore the difficulty bankers and companies have had in convincing investors to buy into equity markets.

Huadian Fuxin which is 85.8% owned by state owned power utility China Huadian Corp has set a HKD 1.60 to 1.76 per share price range for the offer.

The company will offer 1.5 billion new shares in the base deal with another 225 million in the over allotment option that could lift the IPO size to USD 391 million.

Source - Reuters

(www.steelguru.com)