Hong Kong's IPO market - the biggest in the world last year - has hit the brakes with several companies shelving share sales as the Greek debt crisis pounds global markets Swire Properties, a major real estate developer in the city, Thursday pulled a planned 3.09-billion US dollar share sale, just two days after Giti Tire, China's largest tyre maker, shelved a 500-million dollar initial public offering.
On Friday, iron ore producer China Tian Yuan halted its 522-million dollar issue, Dow Jones Newswires reported, citing an unnamed source. The shelving of the IPOs comes as British insurer Prudential on Wednesday delayed launching a rights issue in London aimed at helping it fund a 35.5-billion-dollar take-over of AIA, the Asian arm of troubled US insurer AIG.
Prudential, which remains in talks with Britain's financial sector regulator over the deal, said Friday that its planned listings on the Hong Kong and Singapore exchanges would also be delayed. It did not give a revised date for those listings, which will add trading venues without issuing new shares.
The announcement came hours after Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng index fell Friday to its lowest level in three months, closing at 19,920.29 points as investors fretted about the spectre of a European fiscal implosion.
One company that has gone ahead with plans to list is French cosmetics maker L'Occitane, which saw its share price dive 4.51 percent to 14.40 Hong Kong dollars (1.85 US) when it debuted in Hong Kong on Friday after raising 704 million US dollars in its IPO. Brian Brenner, national director of tenant representation at global real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle in Hong Kong, said it made sense for companies to pull their share sales given current market conditions.
Francis Lun, general manager of Fulbright Securities in Hong Kong, said given the global market conditions, more companies would likely drop their IPO plans in the coming weeks.
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