By Yvonne Lee And Prudence Ho
HONG KONG--Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties Co. plans to take
investors' orders Dec. 8 in an initial public offering that could
raise about US$5 billion this month, according to people familiar
with the situation.
The company, which is controlled by Chinese billionaire Wang
Jianlin and has 178 property projects in 112 cities across 29
provinces in China, received listing approval from the Hong Kong
Stock Exchange on Monday and is planning to gauge investors'
interest Tuesday. It is the property arm of Dalian Wanda Group, the
Chinese company that bought movie chain AMC Entertainment Holdings
in 2012, and it has Wanda Plaza residential-commercial complexes
across the country.
The IPO could be the largest listing by a Chinese property
company in Hong Kong and the biggest offering in the city since
Swiss metals trader Glencore International PLC raised $10 billion
in a Hong Kong-London listing in May 2011, according to
Dealogic.
It isn't known the IPO's valuation and what percentage of Dalian
Wanda Commercial would be listed, but the company, which had a
gearing ratio or debt to equity of 87.8% as of the end of June, is
expected to benefit from the recent interest rate cut in China,
analysts said.
According to the preliminary prospectus, Dalian Wanda Commercial
posted a 27% decrease in revenue to 23 billion yuan (US$3.8
billion) in the first half of the year ended in June from the
corresponding period in the prior year, as property sales declined.
Profit fell 47% to 5 billion yuan over the same time.
Write to Yvonne Lee at yvonne.lee@wsj.com and Prudence Ho at
prudence.ho@wsj.com
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