China Merchants Energy Sets Price
SHANGHAI -- China Merchants Energy Shipping Co., which is primarily involved in oceangoing oil transportation, said Thursday it finalized the price of its initial public offering of Class A shares, raising 4.45 billion yuan, or $565.5 million.
The price was set at 3.71 yuan (47 U.S. cents) a share, which is at the top end of the indicative range of 3.30 yuan to 3.71 yuan set last week.
The company, which is selling 1.2 billion yuan of yuan-denominated Class A shares on the domestic stock market, reallocated 60 million shares from the institutional tranche to retail investors, as demand was so strong. After that move, China Merchants Energy said it issued 345 million Class A shares to strategic investors, 240 million shares to institutional investors and 615 million shares to retail investors.
Retail investors for the offering applied for 89.2 billion shares, suggesting the retail tranche was 145 times subscribed.
The institutional offer attracted subscriptions totaling 50.06 billion yuan, with institutional investors applying for 13.49 billion shares, China Merchants Energy said.
Proceeds from the offering will be used to expand the company's fleet of oil tankers in the next three years and to add five liquefied-natural-gas carriers in southern China, the company said in its IPO prospectus.
It also said it will expand into LNG transportation by strengthening cooperation with strategic partners.
The company expects to list the Class A shares on the Shanghai Stock Exchange by next Thursday, its listing prospectus said.
From: Wall Street Journal, by ROSE YU
Date: November 24, 2006 Back