HONG KONG: China Longyuan Power Group, Asia's largest wind-power generator, is expected to price its Hong Kong IPO near the top of its range due to strong demand, while mainland property IPOs are proving less attractive.

Developer Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd raised $445 million when it priced its Hong Kong IPO at the bottom of an indicated range, a person familiar with the deal said yesterday.

Investors are hungry to buy into renewable energy stocks in order to tap the fast-growing sector, but a glut of IPOs and market volatility following Dubai's credit problems have taken some of the steam out of the market.

Longyuan is a major subsidiary of China Guodian Corp, one of China's five big power generators. The country's sovereign wealth fund, China Investment Corp (CIC), US billionaire investor Wilbur Ross and China Life Insurance Group have all invested in the company ahead of the IPO.

At the top of the range, Longyuan could raise as much as $2.2 billion in the world's eighth-largest IPO this year. It sold 2.1 billion shares, or 30 percent of its enlarged share capital, in a range of HK$6.26 to HK$8.16 per share.

"The deal has attracted more than 230 times for Hong Kong retail investors," a source close to the deal said, triggering a clawback option to increase the retail portion of the global offering to 20 percent from 5 percent.

Longyuan is expected to price on Friday and debut on December 10.

Renewable energy accounts for just a fraction of a percent of China's total electricity output. The coal-dependent nation hopes to bring that up to 10 percent by 2010 and 15 percent by 2020.

"The renewable energy sector enjoys government policy support," said Ben Kwong, chief operating officer at KGI Asia.

"Markets are cautious about government policy cooling the property sector. That's why they drew different responses from investors," Kwong said, referring to the Longyuan and property IPOs.

Kaisa sold 1 billion shares at HK$3.45 each, compared with a range of HK$3.45 to HK$4.45, the source said. Kaisa's trading debut was set for December 9.

Another mainland property firm, Sunac China Holdings Co Ltd, is set to raise up to HK$2.22 billion ($286 million) in a Hong Kong IPO, according to a term sheet seen by Reuters.

Sunac China, which started a marketing roadshow yesterday, plans to sell 600 million new shares at HK$2.9-HK$3.7 each.

Pricing will be on December 11 and trading is slated to begin a week later, according to the term sheet.

Credit Suisse and BOC International are joint bookrunners and lead managers of Kaisa's deal, while UBS and Deutsche are handling Sunac's deal. Longyuan's lead managers are Morgan Stanley and UBS.

Reuters

(HK Edition 12/04/2009 page1)