China Securities is the sponsor.
The company delisted from the National
Equities Exchange and Quotations in August
ûANDûlLEDûTOûmOATûONû#HI.EXTûTOûRAISEû
Rmb598m. Its application was rejected at an
IPO hearing in July 2018. Everbright Securities
was the sponsor.
HONG KONG
IMPRO PRE-MARKETS HK IPOIMPRO PRECISION INDUSTRIES has kicked off pre-
marketing for a Hong Kong IPO of about
US$150m.
(ONGû+ONG
HEADQUARTEREDû)MPROûlRSTû
planned a listing of about US$200m last June
but did not proceed beyond pre-marketing
because of volatile market conditions.
(AVINGûUPDATEDûTHEûlNANCIALS ûTHEû
company is reviving the listing plan with
BOC International and Morgan Stanley as joint
sponsors, as previously.
Impro makes machined components for a
range of industrial customers. According to
AûREGULATORYûlLING ûITûPOSTEDûAûûNETû
PROlTûOFû(+Mû53M ûONûREVENUESûOFû
HK$3.7bn.
TAI HING COMPLETES IPOTAI HING GROUP, a Hong Kong-based casual
dining group, has raised HK$750m (US$96m)
from a Hong Kong IPO after pricing it in the
lower half of the indicative price range.
The company sold 250m primary shares
FORûAûûFREE
mOATûATû(+ûEACHûCOMPAREDû
with the HK$2.80–$3.80 range.
4HEûlNALûPRICEûREPRESENTSûAûû0%ûOFû
The deal saw a good mix of demand from
long-only and multi-strategy funds. The top
10 investors were allocated about 65% of the
shares on offer in the institutional tranche.
There is a 15% greenshoe.
The shares are due to begin trading on
June 13.
BoCom International is the sole sponsor.INDIA
AIRTEL AFRICA TARGETS US$750m
LONDON LISTINGAIRTEL AFRICA has set a proceeds target of
US$750m for its London listing, with proceeds
going towards cutting net debt/Ebitda to 2.5
times post-money, from just below 3.5 times.The Bharti Airtel subsidiary began pre-
MARKETINGûONû4UESDAYûFOLLOWINGûTHEûlLINGûOFû
a registration document the previous week.
A standard four-week schedule is expected,
suggesting bookbuilding and roadshows will
begin around June 17, with pricing around
June 28.
The US$750m deal size is up to 15% of the
expected US$5bn–$6bn market
CAPITALISATION ûBUTûTHEûFREE
mOATûISûEXPECTEDû
to be 25%-plus, including some existing
shareholders.
Airtel Africa will pay a dividend of at least
ûOFûCONSOLIDATEDûFREEûCASHmOWûPROVIDEDû
the ratio of net debt/Ebitda is maintained at
nûTIMESû4HEûlRSTûDIVIDENDûISûEXPECTEDûTOû
be declared following results for the six
months ending September 2019.
Interest is expected to come from
emerging market investors as well as
generalists, with a lot of focus on Airtel
Africa’s mobile payments platform. The
digital payments unit accounted for 7.6% of
Airtel Africa’s consolidated revenues for the
lNANCIALûYEARûTOû-ARCHû
A banker said that although the mobile
payments unit Airtel Money generates a
small percentage of revenues, it is the
company’s fastest growing business and wasEQUITIES ASIA-PACIFICLiquidity crimps Philippines ECM
ASIA-PACIFIC Hedge funds snap up rare block trade but SMFB plans fadeA small overnight block trade last week
highlighted the unfulfilled potential of the
Philippines’ equity capital market, where a lack
of liquidity is preventing larger deals from hitting
the tape.
Sole bookrunner JP Morgan last Monday placed
a Ps3.3bn (US$63m) block of PLDT shares for an
undisclosed institutional vendor at Ps1,238 apiece.
The 2.65m shares in the telecommunications
company were priced near the bottom of a
Ps1,232–Ps1,300 range for an 8.8% discount to
the pre-deal close. Books were multiple times
oversubscribed with demand largely from hedge
funds, with 80% of the deal going to 10 investors.
PLDT shares ended down 8.4% at Ps1,244 last
Tuesday but were up 11% in the year to-date.
Much more, though, is expected from the
best-performing market in South-East Asia. The
benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange Index
is up 6.8% in the year to-date compared with
Vietnam (+6%), Thailand (+4.3%), Singapore
(+2.1%), Indonesia (+0.2%) and Malaysia (–2.1%).
The outlook for the Manila bourse is also positive
as low inflation is likely to keep the central bank
on the interest rate-cutting path. Last month,
benchmark rates were cut by 25bp.
One of the most eagerly awaited deals is
a secondary follow-on in SAN MIGUEL FOODAND BEVERAGE after the parent company’s
lock-up ended in mid-May, but the deal has
not materialised because of low liquidity in the
counter.
Last year, San Miguel raised Ps34bn from a
downsized re-IPO of SMFB at Ps85 a share, reduced
to 400.9m shares from the original target of 887m.
With the stock up 21% since the listing, investors
have been expecting the parent to sell more shares
through a block trade. However, bankers said
trading volumes of a little over US$500,000 a day
make it hard to launch a deal.
“With the current traded volume we can only
launch a US$100m deal and that is not the size
the vendor is looking at,” said a banker who had
worked on the re-IPO.
Typically, a huge block in an illiquid stock has
to be priced at a big discount and often triggers
little incremental buying after the deal is done.
Vendors are also reluctant to sell far below
market price.
No banks have been appointed for the block yet.
JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, UBS, Deutsche
Bank, Goldman Sachs. BDO Capital and BPI
were the banks on the re-IPO.
“SMFB is symptomatic of the Philippines. It
has a great growth story but is tied down by low
liquidity,” an ECM banker said.Like the rest of South-East Asia, the
Philippines is also nervously watching the
impact of the current US-China trade war on
Chinese economic growth, which in turn will
affect other Asian economies.
PHILIPPINE NATIONAL BANK is in the market with
a rights issue to raise up to Ps12bn. The offer will
be open for subscription between June 26 and
July 5 and the entitlement ratio and price will be
announced soon.
Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan are the
international underwriters of the offer while PNB
Capital is the domestic underwriter.
On the IPO front, Michael “Mikee” Romero,
the biggest shareholder in low-cost carrier
PHILIPPINES AIR ASIA, said the company aimed to
raise at least US$200m from an IPO later this
year. But overall the pipeline is thin.
Metro Pacific Investments last month said
the US$200m–$300m IPO of unit METRO
PACIFIC HOSPITALS has been put on hold as
it was planning to get a strategic investor
into the company. CAL-COMP TECHNOLOGY
PHILIPPINES and DEL MONTE PHILIPPINES are
also not showing any immediate signs of
reviving their respective IPOs after shelving
plans in 2018.
S Anuradha