Investors' love affair with new share issues has continued with the retail tranche of China National Building Material's initial public offering heavily oversubscribed, soaking up $75.18 billion.
The massive demand meant the company could price its share offering at the top of its range - $2.75 - to raise $1.79 billion, which would translate to 13.5 times this year's forecast earnings, sources said.
The mainland building materials provider's retail tranche was about 420 times subscribed, they said, adding the institutional tranche was about 22 times covered.
In terms of retail money locked up, China National surpassed mainland department store operator Golden Eagle Retail Group's $43.28 billion but lagged behind the bigger offering of Nine Dragons Paper (Holdings), which drew $176.91 billion.
The level of retail demand has forced the company to claw back 50 per cent of the offer's shares to retail investors - up from 10 per cent.
The clawback, however, should support the share price performance.