Lion Air Adds to Busy Southeast Asia IPO Pipeline

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Indonesia’s biggest private carrier, Lion Air, has kicked off early marketing for its long-awaited initial public offering, adding to a busy Southeast Asian pipeline as Hong Kong remains muted after the Lunar New Year holiday amid the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Lion Air began gauging investor demand this week for an Indonesian IPO that could raise at least $500 million, people familiar with the matter said previously. Indonesia has not seen an offering of that size since fellow airline Garuda Indonesia raised $524 million in 2011, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

The widening impact of the coronavirus outbreak in China, however, may yet throw a spanner in the works. Lion Air said on Wednesday it would temporarily stop all of its chartered flights to 15 cities in China from February and was still calculating the financial effect of the decision.

Meanwhile in Thailand, Central Retail Corp., the shopping unit of one of the country’s largest conglomerates, is taking orders for what is on track to be the Southeast Asian nation’s largest IPO on record. With an upper range of 67.6 billion baht ($2.19 billion), the offering is poised to overtake BTS Rail Mass Transit Growth Infrastructure Fund’s $2.14 billion IPO in 2013, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Lion Air and Central Retail are giving Asia a strong start to the year in terms of IPOs. Aside from Beijing-Shanghai High Speed Railway Co.’s $4.34 billion listing in China, there haven’t been any deals that have raised more than $500 million across the region so far this year, data compiled by Bloomberg show. In Malaysia, which has had a dearth of offerings, Mr D.I.Y., the country’s biggest home improvement retailer, filed a draft prospectus two weeks ago for an IPO that could raise $500 million, people familiar with the matter have said previously.

Meanwhile Singapore is gearing up for its first U.K.-focused real estate investment trust listing, with Elite Commercial REIT planning to raise 130.9 million pounds ($170.3 million) in an IPO.

UPCOMING LISTINGS:

• Central Retail
  • Thailand stock exchange
  • Size up to $2.6b
  • Books close Feb. 3, listing Feb. 20
  • Bualuang Securities, Phatra Securities, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, UBS
• Lion Air
  • Indonesia stock exchange
  • Size over $500m
  • Pre-marketing from Jan. 27-Feb. 7
  • BNP Paribas, Morgan Stanley
• Elite Commercial REIT
  • Singapore stock exchange
  • Size up to $170.3m
  • Listing Feb. 6
  • OCBC Bank, UBS, CGS-CIMB and CICC
• Shenzhen Leoking Environmental Group
  • Hong Kong exchange
  • Pre-marketing started Dec. 18
  • CLSA sole sponsor
• Mr D.I.Y Group
  • Bursa Malaysia
  • Size up to $500m
  • Pricing date TBD
  • CIMB, Maybank

• Gongniu Group

  • Shanghai exchange
  • Size $519m
  • Listing TBA
  • Sinolink Securities

More ECM situations we are following:

• Bank of India is planning to raise 10 billion rupees ($140 million) by selling shares to institutional investors next month, Mint reports, citing people close to the development that it doesn’t identify.

• Asia ECM Weekly Agenda
• IPO data
• U.S. ECM Watch
• EU ECM Watch
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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, Margo Towie, Joanna Ossinger

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