Excellence Real Estate delays $1b HK share sale

Excellence Real Estate Group Ltd, the largest property developer in Shenzhen's Central Business District, delayed a Hong Kong initial public offering that could have raised as much as $1 billion.

Excellence decided not to proceed under the original timetable "in view of the current market conditions for initial public offerings and with the investors' best interests in mind," it said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange late Tuesday. It was scheduled to price the share sale yesterday.

Evergrande draws strong demand for HK IPO-source

The IPO of mainland property developer Evergrande Real Estate Group has attracted strong initial demand, a source said yesterday, a day before the scaled-back offering is set to price. The strong demand likely stems from the low valuation that bookrunners and the company agreed to give the offering, amid a deluge of property IPOs on the mainland and Hong Kong.

The company plans to raise up to $828 million by selling 1.61 billion shares, of which about 90 percent are allocated for institutional investors, with an indicative range of HK$3.00 to HK$4.00 each. Evergrande's offering is being priced at about five to 6.6 times forecast 2010 earnings.

Cosco Pacific's profit falls 49% on world trade slump

Cosco Pacific Ltd, Asia's third- largest container-terminal operator, posted a 49 percent drop in third-quarter profit as the global recession damped world trade.

Net income slumped to $40 million from $77.7 million a year earlier, the Hong Kong-based company said in a statement to the city's stock exchange yesterday. Sales fell 8.5 percent to $83.4 million.

The company's container traffic fell 4.2 percent in the period as recessions in the US and Europe curbed demand for shipments of Asian-made toys, furniture and other goods. Global volumes are now "going up slowly" as the world economy improves, Wei Jiafu, chairman of Cosco Pacific's parent China Cosco Holdings Co, said earlier this week.

Li & Fung Unit IPO said to raise HK$745.7 million

Trinity Ltd, the luxury menswear division of Li & Fung Group, and a shareholder raised HK$745.7 million ($96 million) in a Hong Kong initial public offering, said two people briefed on the sale.

Trinity and shareholder LiFung Trinity sold a combined 451.94 million shares, or a 30 percent stake, at HK$1.65 each, said the people, declining to be identified before the information is publicly announced. They earlier offered the shares at HK$1.30 to HK$1.71 each.

The final pricing values the company at 12.7 times its earnings per share as estimated by banks involved in the sale, said the people. The institutional order book was about 10 times oversubscribed, one of the people added.

Christiana Yiu, Trinity's company secretary, wasn't immediately reachable for comment.

Citigroup Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co managed the sale. James Griffiths, a spokesman for Citigroup in Hong Kong, and Marie Cheung, a spokeswoman for JPMorgan in the city, declined to comment.

Hong Kong Sept visitor arrivals up 2.5 pct yr/yr

Visitor arrivals to Hong Kong rose 2.5 percent in September from a year earlier to 2.25 million, data from the Hong Kong Tourism Board showed. This brings cumulative arrivals for the first nine months of 2009 to 21.16 million, down 2.8 percent from the same period last year.

Hotel occupancy in September averaged 76 percent, down three percentage points from a year earlier. The average hotel room rate in September was HK$1,042 (US$133.5), down 15.1 percent from the same month a year earlier.

China Daily/Agencies

(HK Edition 10/29/2009 page4)