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Pulled Hong Kong IPOs Rise From The Ashes

Pulled Hong Kong IPOs Rise From The Ashes

(Bloomberg) -- Two Hong Kong initial public offerings that had been postponed earlier this year are rearing their heads again.

Warburg Pincus-backed ESR Cayman Ltd., a logistics real estate platform, on Friday refiled listing documents with the Hong Kong stock exchange, a day after the world’s largest brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev did the same for its Asian unit.

The potential return of the two deals, which had initially sought to raise about $11 billion between them, marks a remarkable turnaround for the fortunes of the Hong Kong stock exchange, which is languishing behind Shanghai and New York in terms of IPO proceeds. Companies have only raised $10.8 billion in Hong Kong IPOs so far this year, less than the amount withdrawn, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Budweiser Brewing Company APAC Ltd. -- AB InBev’s Asian unit -- and ESR Cayman are respectively the largest and third-biggest pulled deals globally this year, the data show. Should they successfully complete their IPOs on the second attempt, it would give a boost to investor confidence and other prospective issuers waiting in the pipeline.

Market confidence has been hit hard by ongoing anti-government protests in Hong Kong and the U.S.-China trade war, causing some Chinese companies to shift their IPOs to the U.S. The fact that AB InBev and ESR Cayman had to put off their IPOs because of lackluster investor demand underscores price sensitivity among the investors, many of whom lost money on IPOs last year and are pushing back against lofty valuations.

IPO activity has picked up significantly in Hong Kong in recent weeks. Shanghai Henlius Biotech is set to be the first company since July to price a deal over $100 million when it closes its books next week, while Bank of Guizhou, Home Credit and Topsports International Holdings are currently gauging investor demand for deals that could fetch around a billion each.

UPCOMING LISTINGS:

  • Budweiser Brewing Company APAC Ltd.
    • Hong Kong exchange
    • Size about $5b
    • Launching as soon as next week
    • JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley
  • Shanghai Henlius Biotech
    • Hong Kong exchange
    • Size up to $477m
    • Taking orders from Sept. 11
    • Pricing Sept. 18
    • BofA Merrill Lynch, CICC, Citi, CMBI, Fosun Hani
  • Topsports International Holdings
    • Hong Kong exchange
    • Premarketing started Sept. 9
    • Size about $1b
    • Bank of America, Morgan Stanley
  • Lendlease Global Commercial REIT
    • Singapore exchange
    • Premarketing started Sept. 2
    • Citi among joint bookrunners
  • Asset World
    • Thailand exchange
    • Price: 6 baht
    • Size up to $1.6b
    • Property arm of billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi
    • Listing date: Oct. 10
  • Home Credit
    • Hong Kong exchange
    • Premarketing started Sept. 2
    • Citi, HSBC, Morgan Stanley
  • AllHome (home-furnishing retailer)
    • Size up to $347m
    • Opened books Sept. 13
    • Pricing Sept. 26
    • Listing Oct. 10
    • Owned by billionaire Manuel Villar
  • Bhakti Agung Propertindo
    • Jakarta exchange
    • Price: 150 rupiah
    • Issuance date: Sept. 13
    • Listing date: Sept. 16
  • Telefast Indonesia (provider of enterprise software solutions)
    • Jakarta Exchange
    • Kresna Sekuritas and Trimegah Sekuritas
    • Offering expected Sept. 9-11
    • Expected listing Sept. 16

More ECM situations we are following:

  • Hong Kong biotech IPOs shine with 24% gain in just over a year
  • Bernstein analysts give AB InBev’s Budweiser Brewing Company APAC Ltd. excluding the Australian assets an enterprise value of $52b on a 12-month forward basis, which implies a next-12-months EV/Ebitda multiple of 22.6x, they say in a note
  • China’s Uber-for-trucks startup Full Truck Alliance said it’s weighing an initial public offering after breaking even from May, defying a sector-wide downturn
  • AllHome Corp. and shareholder AllValue Holdings Corp. offer as much as 1.125b shares at 11.50-14.00 pesos apiece in an initial public offering in the Philippines, according to terms for the deal obtained by Bloomberg
  • According to the draft registration statement for Metro Pacific’s IPO of its hospital unit, the company expects to sell 381.3 million shares of the unit in the Philippine IPO

SEE ALSO

  • Asia ECM Weekly Agenda
  • IPO data
  • U.S. ECM Watch
  • EU ECM Watch
  • To receive the ECM Watch in your inbox daily, click the “subscribe” button at the top of this article

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, Teo Chian Wei, Margo Towie

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