New China Life places at bottom of pricing range in dual listing

China's third-largest life insurer priced at HK$28.5 a share in Hong Kong - where it offered 358.4 million new shares - and RMB23.25 in Shanghai - where it offered 158.8 million shares - Bloomberg reported. The company had set an indicative range of HK$28.2-$34.33 and RMB23-28 a share in Hong Kong and Shanghai, respectively, the report continued.

Reports surfaced in August that New China Life Insurance sought to raise up to $4 billion through its dual IPO process. However, reports indicated that market volatility tempered expectations to $3-3.5 billion.

New China Life's leading shareholder is Central Huijin, a unit of China Investment Corp., which holds a 40% stake. Baosteel Group, the world's second-largest steel producer, has a further 20%, while Zurich Insurance is on 15%, having sold 5% to parties affiliated to Nomura and China International Capital Corp. (CICC) in March.

Temasek and Standard Chartered Private Equity jointly invested in the insurer at the end of 2010 - the former has a 3.5% holding to the latter's 1.5%. An affiliate of Hony Capital owns a further 9%.

In October, Citic Securities, which raised $1.7 billion through an IPO backed by investors including Temasek Holdings and Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), performed poorly on its Hong Kong market debut, dropping 10.5% before closing unchanged. Citic Securities ended the day at HK$13.30, the same as its listing price, while the benchmark Hang Seng Index gained 5.7% and the financial sub-index jumped 6.5%.

Meanwhile, Warburg Pincus Private Equity has become a cornerstone investor in the IPO of Chinese brokerage Haitong Securities, buying $210 million worth of shares as part of a potential $1.7 billion raise by the company. Haitong's investors remain hopeful that the company will fare better than Citic, as do a handful of other companies that have submitted filings to complete floats before the year's end, including Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group, which has targeted up to $2.8 billion.

Fitness First, a portfolio company of European PE house BC Partners, is among the firms to have cancelled or postponed its Asian IPO. BC planned to exit via a $1.6 billion IPO in Singapore but is now said to be looking for strategic buyers.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Financing
• China
• Financial Services
• IPO
• Temasek Holdings
• Standard Chartered Private Equity