China Feihe Raises $856 Million in Hong Kong IPO

(Bloomberg) -- China Feihe Ltd., a baby formula producer, raised HK$6.7 billion ($856 million) after pricing its Hong Kong initial public offering at the bottom of its marketed range, people familiar with the matter said.

The Beijing-based company sold 893.3 million shares at HK$7.50 each, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. Shares had been offered at HK$7.50 to HK$10 apiece, implying a market value of $8.5 billion to $11.4 billion.

A representative for Feihe said there’s no immediate comment.

The offering is Feihe’s at least second attempt to conduct an IPO in Hong Kong after it applied for a listing in the city in May 2017. The dairy company went private from the New York Stock Exchange in 2013 amid a wave of delistings by U.S.-traded Chinese firms.

The share sale will add to the deal momentum in Hong Kong, which has seen a flurry of IPO activity in the past two months despite ongoing anti-government protests and the prolonged U.S.-China trade war. After a summer drought, Hong Kong saw several billion-dollar-plus IPOs, including the world’s second-largest this year by Anheuser-Busch InBev NV’s Asian unit.

Feihe plans to use the IPO proceeds for offshore debt repayment, potential acquisitions and funding the operation of a new manufacturing plant. The company is expected to start trading on Nov. 13.

JPMorgan Chase & Co., China Merchants Securities Co Ltd. and CCB International Holdings Ltd. are joint sponsors of the offering.

To contact the reporter on this story: Julia Fioretti in Hong Kong at jfioretti4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lianting Tu at ltu4@bloomberg.net, Fion Li, Ville Heiskanen

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