Jul. 6 – Chinese companies may raise as much as US$74 billion this year through IPOs on the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses in an effort to generate funds for growth, according to a statement from PricewaterhouseCoopers in Shanghai.
PwC expects 300 new listing this year (275 in Shenzhen and 25 in Shanghai) following a very solid first half which saw 176 companies raise US$31 billion. The country’s 99 IPOs in total last year generated less than that figure, raising just US$28 billion through the entirety of 2009 – although there was a 10-month moratorium on share sales until June 2009 to protect the markets during the economic downturn.
“China’s economic growth is expected to continue in the second half of the year,” Charles Feng, PwC’s lead partner in Beijing, said to the press on Monday. “Unless some negative factors emerge, IPOs in Shanghai and Shenzhen will maintain the momentum and are likely to reach historical heights this year.”
In fact, China’s IPO market will likely be the largest in the world this year according to PwC, headlined by Agricultural Bank of China’s listing this summer which is expected to raise over US$20 billion. It is the last of China’s “Big Four” banking institutions to make a public listing and the bank has its sights on breaking the US$21.9 billion IPO record set by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in 2006.
