BEIJING (Dispatches) - China’s Nasdaq-like STAR board plans later this year to host each of the year’s two largest IPOs in the market, with a forecast potential of raising over 100 billion yuan ($17 billion).
The Shanghai-based STAR market, which lists science and technology companies, is prepping to list the shares of China Telecom Corp., one of the nation’s largest telecom carriers, and Syngenta Group, the Swiss agrichemicals giant owned by ChemChina (China National Chemical Corp).
China Telecom Corp., which was delisted by the New York Stock Exchange for national security reasons in January this year, aims to raise 47.1 billion yuan ($7.3 billion) in Shanghai next week.
Syngenta Group, China’s largest-ever foreign acquisition, bought by state-run ChemChina for $43 billion in 2017, is also preparing a 65-billion-yuan ($10 billion) listing on Star board.
If the two offers succeed, the total funds raised through their first-time share sales may reach $59 billion, Bloomberg data shows.
Despite recent steps taken by Beijing against public offerings in education, Chinese domestic IPO profits are at an 11-year peak, with a record number of 320 deals. China’s equity benchmark, the CSI 300 Index, surged 35% compared to 2019. The mainland’s biggest listing so far this year was China Three Gorges Renewables Group Co.’s $3.2 billion IPO. The company is a clean energy group that develops and operates hydropower stations.