20 firms line up for year-end IPO rush

Hong Kong's listing market is on course for another year-end rush, with about 20 companies planning to launch share offerings.

The listing hopefuls aim to raise at least HK$30 billion in total, including Cinda Asset Management's US$2.5 billion offer and Qinhuangdao Port's US$500 million plan. This will bring the amount of capital raised for the full year to about HK$100 billion.

Cinda, one of the mainland's four non-performing asset managers, is expected to undergo a listing hearing with the Hong Kong stock exchange tomorrow. Its long-planned share sale is being marketed as an investment story for "counter-cyclicals in the midst of the economic slowdown".

The city's equity capital market has steadily recovered from a hiccup in late June as investors switched into risky assets such as equities and derivatives at the expense of traditional fixed-income products. That has been given an impetus by the United States Federal Reserve's decision to keep its cheap-money policy in place and continue to fuel its US$85 billion monthly bond-buying programme.

Meanwhile, the third plenum of the Communist Party's Central Committee is expected to set the tone for a string of reforms that could buoy the market.

The four-day session is being billed as important as the one in December 1978 that marked the start of market-oriented reforms under Deng Xiaoping.