TIANJIN Bohai Chemical Industry (Group) Co has narrowly managed to secure full subscription for its H shares. The company said yesterday the shares were 0.25 per cent oversubscribed, giving a subscription rate which is by far the lowest of the eight H-share stocks which have been issued in the territory. Applications for about 340.86 million H shares in Tianjin Bohai have been received, compared with the 340 million shares offered. The company aimed to raise $408 million by issuing the shares at $1.20 each. Its lacklustre subscription level occurred at a time when the stock market was in the doldrums and the second batch of H shares was diluting some investor interest on the first batch. Tianjin Bohai was the second last of the state-owned enterprise of the first batch to float on the Hong Kong stock exchange, just ahead of Dongfang Electrical Machinery. Its subscription rate compared with Shanghai Petrochemical Co's subscription rate of 1.77 times, which was low relative to the subscription rate of other H shares and came under much limelight. The petrochemical company's flotation was a massive $1.23 billion. Usually the bigger the flotation size, the greater the resistance for a high subscription rate. Other H issues all posted higher subscription rates. Yizheng Chemical Fibre, which tried to raise $2.62 billion, had its H shares 20.17 times subscribed. H shares in Beiren Printing were 25 times subscribed in its $208 million fund-raising exercise. Maanshan Iron & Steel had its H shares 68.7 times subscribed in its $3.92 billion flotation. H-shares in Guangzhou Shipyard International were 77 times subscribed when it tried to raise $301.6 million. Tsingtao Brewery saw a 110.47 subscription rate for its H shares offered in a $763.3 million fund-raising exercise. Kunming Machine Tool gave the most staggering subscription rate of all H-share stocks, chalking up a subscription of 628 times - one of the largest subscription in Hong Kong's history. The machine tool company raised $128.7 million by issuing 65 million shares at $1.98 each.
