Guangzhou R&F Properties launches institutional and retail tranches today Guangzhou R&F Properties yesterday resumed its initial public offering after a brief hiatus despite lacklustre demand for recent issues and poor sentiment towards the property sector. The mainland developer, which hopes to tap the Hong Kong market for up to $2.21 billion, said it would open both the institutional and retail tranches of the offering today ahead of a July 14 listing. It plans to sell 183.92 million shares, or 25 per cent of its expanded share capital, at an indicative price range of $10.70 to $12.03 per share. 'The bankers have tested the waters over the past few days and are confident that there is sufficient appetite among institutions,' a person familiar with the deal said. 'If the institutional tranche is fully covered, the retail book should be fine,' the source said. 'We are not looking for hundred times of oversubscriptions.' The company received approval from the listing committee for its offering earlier this month but decided to postpone it in light of challenging market conditions. Public share issues have done poorly in recent weeks despite good performance overall on the exchange. The retail offerings of shipping firm China Cosco Holdings and office printer maker Jolimark Holdings both closed undersubscribed. These and other listing candidates such as SIM Technologies Corp were forced to offer shares at the low end of their indicative price ranges. Observers said a mainland property play was unlikely to be popular in light of China's official measures to cool property prices. Rival developer Beijing Capital Land issued a profit warning yesterday saying its first-half results would be 'materially and adversely affected by the austerity measures last year'. R&F vice-chairman Zhang Li said the target of government efforts was mainly Shanghai, where the company has no operations. He expects R&F's net profit for this year to double to 1.04 billion yuan from 545 million yuan last year. The company is promising investors an annualised dividend yield of at least 8.6 per cent for the remainder of the year. The offered prices represent a forecast price-earnings ratio for this year of eight to nine. Of the offered shares, 90 per cent will be reserved for institutional investors. CSFB and Morgan Stanley are sponsors of the deal.