Cinda to price IPO near top of range

China Cinda Asset Management plans to sell shares in a Hong Kong initial public offering at near the top end of a marketed price range to raise about US$2.5 billion, said two people with knowledge of the matter.

Strong demand prompted the company to stop taking orders for shares yesterday, a day earlier than scheduled, said the sources. Institutional investors ordered several times the amount of stock available to them at the high end of the price range, they said.

Cinda, one of four funds created in 1999 to buy bad debts from the mainland's banks, benefited from a resurgent listings market in Hong Kong as investors bet the mainland economy will stabilise.

The float is the city's biggest in a year and will bring proceeds raised in 2013 to more than US$15 billion, data shows.

The H-share index has advanced 8.5 per cent in the past six months, and Goldman Sachs forecast this week the measure will rally 18 per cent by the end of next year.

Economic indicators including manufacturing growth for last month have spurred optimism that the mainland's expansion is gaining momentum.

Cinda will start trading on December 12, according to its prospectus.

The company offered about 5.3 billion shares at HK$3 to HK$3.58 apiece, the prospectus shows.

A Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for Cinda declined to comment on pricing.

The offering is the city's biggest since November last year, when People's Insurance Company (Group) of China raised US$3.6 billion, according to data. Companies have raised US$12.6 billion through listings in Hong Kong this year, surpassing the US$8 billion for the whole of last year, the data shows.