China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co, the nation's third-largest
insurer, raised 30 billion yuan (US$4.1 billion) in its Shanghai
initial public offering yesterday, the second-biggest mainland
share sale by a Chinese insurance company.
Pacific Insurance, 19.9 percent owned by companies controlled by
funds managed by the Carlyle Group, sold one billion new shares at
30 yuan each, the top end of a range, according to a sale
document.
Investors are piling into China's IPOs, seeking an escape from a
secondary stock market disturbed by concerns about rising domestic
interest rates and other government measures to cool growth in the
world's fastest-growing major economy.
"Chinese investors still have a lot of appetite for insurance
stocks, since there will be only three companies traded
domestically," said Ke Shifeng, who helps oversee about US$5
billion of Greater China assets for Martin Currie Investment
Management in Shanghai. "The IPO market remains red-hot unlike the
secondary market, where there's no longer a pool of easy money
after recent market ups and downs."
The 22 Chinese domestic IPOs that have begun trading since
November 1 have risen at least 59 percent, beating an almost
15-percent decline in the nation's benchmark CSI 300 Index during
the same period, Bloomberg News figures show.
The IPO is the fourth-largest public share sale by an insurance
company worldwide since at least 1999.
Shenzhen-based Ping An Insurance (Group) Co, the nation's
second-largest insurer, raised US$5 billion in February in the
world's biggest stock sale by an insurer.
(Shanghai Daily December 18, 2007)
