Returning Chinese 'orphan' stocks offer opportunities

Chinese "orphan" stocks - companies once lured to float overseas but now left neglected - are starting to head home, creating investment opportunities, said the head of money manager Martin Currie's China business.

Martin Currie, which owns shares in Singapore-listed leasing firm Financial One Corp and London-traded medical device maker China Medical System Holdings Ltd, is betting that if such companies de-list themselves and then float on the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong or Taiwan, their share prices will jump.

Faced with a regulatory environment that long favored large State-owned companies as well as slow approval processes, many smaller private firms chose to list overseas, especially in the first half of the past decade.