Hong Kong-based Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Co (周大福珠寶) is hoping to raise up to US$3.5 billion in a massive initial public offering (IPO), based on its lucrative share of China’s luxury market, reports said yesterday.
The world’s biggest jewelry chain, with more than 1,300 outlets throughout Asia, has launched a premarketing process to gauge investor appetite ahead of a roadshow that opens on Nov. 28, Dow Jones Newswires reported.
Wholly owned by Cheng Yu-tung (鄭裕彤), 80, the firm is pushing ahead with the planned Dec. 15 listing despite global market volatility, betting its share of China’s booming market for luxury goods will be enough to lure investors.
“They are the dominant jewelry player in China. It would surprise people in the West just how big they are,” CLSA analyst Aaron Fischer told the Wall Street Journal.
Chow Tai Fook is hoping to raise US$3 billion to US$3.5 billion from the sale of mainly new shares in what would be the biggest IPO globally since Spanish bank Bankia SA’s US$4.4 billion listing in July.
Chow Tai Fook has a vast network of stores in China plus outlets in Taiwan, Macau, Malaysia and Singapore. It also has diamond--cutting facilities in South Africa and China, and manufacturing plants in China and Hong Kong.
It plans to expand its number of chain stores to more than 2,000 by the end of 2016, according to its Web site.
JP Morgan Chase & Co, HSBC Holdings PLC, Deutsche Bank AG and Goldman Sachs Group Inc are the global coordinators of the Chow Tai Fook IPO, according to Dow Jones Newswires.
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