US IPO market also expected to grow in March after recent filing updates, Renaissance says
Mapletree Greater China Commercial Trust, a Singapore-based real estate investment trust, has priced the third-largest IPO in the nation’s history, with shares at the top of its indicative range and raising S$1.7 bn ($1.4 bn).
Mapletree, which focuses on investing in income-producing properties in China, priced its IPO at S$0.93 a share, at the top of the range of S$0.88 to S$0.93, making the offering the biggest in the country in more than two years and adding to expectations that IPO activity will increase in Asia this year. Shares will begin trading on March 7 on Singapore Stock Exchange.
Mapletree, which was owned by Mapletree Investments as part of the Singaporean state’s Temasek Holdings, says in its prospectus that it plans to use the proceeds to buy the seven-story Festival Walk Mall in Hong Kong and Gateway Plaza, which consists of two 25-story office towers and a retail area in Beijing, from its mother company. Citigroup, DBS Bank, Goldman Sachs and HSBC were joint global bookrunners on the deal.
The pricing comes a day after the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, raised almost $1.3 bn by selling a stake in Global Logistic Properties, a warehouse operator with properties in Japan and China.
The global IPO market has grown almost 316 percent in cash terms compared with the same period last year, with a total of $13.2 bn raised, according to IPO tracking and analysis firm Renaissance Capital. The number of IPOs priced has grown by 56 percent at the same time, to 25 offerings. The US has been the most active market so far, accounting for 49 percent of the money raised and 48 percent of the deals. Asia-Pacific is in second place, with 24 percent of both the total proceeds and the number of deals.
Renaissance said at the end of last year that 2013 IPO activity would pick up, in part as state entities, like Temasek, offer shares to reduce debt. Listings worth some $200 bn were in the global pipeline at the end of 2012. Renaissance said in a research note this week that March is shaping up to be a busy month in the US IPO market after a flurry of 17 IPO filing updates in the past two weeks.
‘This activity, combined with a large group of confidential filers, suggests many deals could be ready to launch in the next few weeks,’ Renaissance says in the research note. ‘The complete US IPO pipeline currently includes 110 companies looking to raise $31.2 bn. Just under 50 percent of these companies have filed an update within the last 180 days.’
