Shenwan Hongyuan prices HK share offer at bottom of range, raises $1.2 bln-sources (updated)

Shenwan Hongyuan HK

18/04/2019 08:59

* Shenwan Hongyuan prices offering at HK$3.63/share -sources
    * Deal is Asia's biggest listing so far this year
    * Hong Kong lagging behind New York in IPOs in 2019

 (Adds details, background)
    By Julia Fioretti
    HONG KONG, April 18 (Reuters) - Chinese securities firm
Shenwan Hongyuan Group Co Ltd  000166.SZ  has priced its Hong
Kong share offering at the bottom end of a marketed range,
raising $1.16 billion, two people with direct knowledge of the
matter said.
    The deal is Asia's biggest listing so far this year and the
world's sixth largest, Refinitiv data showed.
    Shenwan Hongyuan  6806.HK  had set an indicative price range
of HK$3.63-HK$3.93 per share ($0.4628-$0.5010) for the 2.5
billion shares on offer.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N21T22B
    There is a greenshoe, or over-allotment option, of up to 15
percent, which could bring the total raised to $1.3 billion.
    Shenwan Hongyuan did not immediately reply to a request for
comment.
    Hong Kong had a stellar 2018 in terms of stock market
listings, with companies raising $36.3 billion in the city - the
most of any stock exchange globally.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1YM3DN
    This year, however, is likely to be slower as the stream of
companies in China looking to go public thins.
    Companies have raised $2.9 billion in initial public
offerings in Hong Kong so far in 2019, compared with $6.4
billion raised on the Nasdaq in New York, Refinitiv data showed.
    Shenwan Hongyuan secured 13 cornerstone investors for its
Hong Kong listing, which together committed to buy about $829
million worth of shares, a term sheet showed.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N21T22B
    The cornerstone investors include ICBC Asset Management
Scheme Nominee, Huaxia Life Insurance , China Life Insurance
 601628.SS , China Reinsurance Corp  1508.HK  and New China Life
Insurance Co Ltd  601336.SS . 
    Shenwan Hongyuan plans to use the proceeds to develop its
enterprise finance business for merger-and-acquisition clients,
provide a one-stop investment banking service for enterprise
clients, and develop its personal finance business for wealth
management needs, its draft prospectus showed.
    ABC International, Goldman Sachs, ICBC and a unit of Shenwan
Hongyuan are joint sponsors for the Hong Kong float, the
prospectus showed. The shares will begin trading on April 26.
Shenwan Hongyuan is already listed in Shenzhen. 
    ($1 = 7.8442 Hong Kong dollars)

 (Reporting by Julia Fioretti; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
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Messaging: julia.fioretti.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))