Breakingviews - Hong Kong’s IPO debutants rely on helping hands - Reuters

Breakingviews - Hong Kong’s IPO debutants rely on helping hands - Reuters:

Hong Kong’s latest wave of listings are attracting some big helping hands. Anheuser-Busch InBev raised $5 billion through a relaunched float of its Asia-Pacific unit. There’s appetite for new share issues in the city despite ongoing protests, but at a discount and with strong cornerstone support.

After its attempt to sell shares in Budweiser Brewing Company APAC fell flat in July, AB InBev sold the unit’s low-growth Australian division to Japan’s Asahi, then relaunched the process last week with backing from Singapore state investment fund GIC. Priced at the bottom end of a marketed range, the new deal gives Budweiser APAC an enterprise value of $45 billion.

When adding in the generous $11 billion raised from Asahi, that’s within the roughly $53 billion to $62 billion range the company had initially sought. A listing by Chinese biotech company Henlius, which raised $410 million last week in the city’s first major IPO since July, looked similar. Support from four cornerstone backers including the Qatar Investment Authority got it across the line, but it too priced at the lower end.