Duty-free giant China Tourism planning potentially biggest listing in Hong Kong this year
- Company could raise about US$7 billion, according to eastmoney.com
- China Tourism’s Shanghai-traded shares dropped on Tuesday
China Tourism Group Duty Free, which operates the country’s biggest store franchise, plans to sell shares in what could potentially be the Hong Kong market’s biggest initial public offering (IPO) this year, as it seeks equity funding to expand its business.
The government-backed company applied for a listing to Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing and posted its documents on the bourse operator’s website on Friday, it said on Tuesday.
“The Hong Kong IPO will further strengthen its global competitiveness, firm up its domestic market share and improve supply chain and operating efficiency,” said Chen Rulian, an analyst at CSC Financial, who expected China Tourism to more than double its profit this year.
China Tourism, in which state-owned China Tourism Group has a 53 per cent stake, has 188 duty-free shops in mainland China and six in Hong Kong, Macau and Cambodia. Among these stores, its Sanya International Duty-Free Complex, an offshore shop on Hainan Island, was its biggest with revenue of 21.4 billion yuan (US$3.3 billion) last year.
