China Tourism Group Duty Free Corp plans to file for a Hong Kong secondary listing this week.
That could raise up to US$10 billion (HK$77.8 billion), which would make it the biggest public sale in the SAR after a HK$101.2-billion deal by Alibaba (9988) in November 2019, according to IFR Asia.
China's dominant duty-free retailer does however plan to raise between US$7 billion and US$10 billion.
The Shanghai-listed duty free firm has picked China International Capital Corp and UBS to arrange the Hong Kong listing, and more investment banks are expected to join given the size of the deal.
Founded in 1984, the state-owned firm operates the duty free business and travel services.
It has 200 retail outlets in more than 90 mainland cities plus Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. It is also in Southeast Asian cities, including Cambodia's Siem Reap and Phnom Penh.
Shares of the firm have risen more than 126 percent in the past 12 months, with investors betting on a tourism recovery and improved luxury spending in the mainland. Its market valuation reached 550.5 billion yuan (HK$660.1 billion) yesterday.
China Tourism Group Duty Free Corp reported a net profit of 2.85 billion yuan in the first quarter of the year compared with a loss of 21.8 million yuan in 2020. That was driven largely by offshore duty free business in Hainan province.
Meanwhile, Chinese bubble tea chain owner Nayuki plans to price its Hong Kong initial public offering at HK$19.8 - the higher end of the indicative range - and closed institutional books a day ahead of schedule, Bloomberg reported.
That means Nayuki could raise about HK$5.1 billion from the deal.
Its retail portion was oversubscribed more than 208 times through margin financing, data from 24 brokers showed.
Other action saw Yuexiu Services, the property management arm of Yuexiu Property (0123), raise HK$1.8 billion after pricing its Hong Kong IPO at HK$4.88 - the bottom of the marketed price range.
And online physician platform Medlive Technology passed a listing hearing for its Hong Kong IPO that could raise US$500 million.
The Shanghai-listed duty free firm has picked China International Capital Corp and UBS to arrange the Hong Kong listing. SING TAO
