Cofco Meat Holdings Ltd (中糧肉食控股), the Chinese pork producer part-owned by KKR & Co, is seeking to raise as much as US$333 million in a Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO).
The state-backed company is offering 975.6 million shares at HK$2 to HK$2.65 apiece, according to terms for the deal obtained by Bloomberg yesterday.
Haier Group Corp (海爾) agreed to buy US$57.4 million of stock as the biggest cornerstone investor in the offering, the terms show.
Investors are returning to the Chinese food industry after a series of safety scandals that shook consumer confidence.
Shares of WH Group Ltd (萬洲國際), the Chinese owner of the Smithfield bacon brand, have risen 56 percent in Hong Kong trading this year, outpacing the 5.2 percent gain in the territory’s benchmark Hang Seng Index.
KKR, Baring Private Equity Asia, Hopu Investment Management Co (厚樸投資管理), and Boyu Capital (博裕資本) bought stakes in Cofco Meat in 2014, according to a pre-listing filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange.
Hopu sold its interest in the company last year to Singapore state investment firm Temasek Holdings Pte, the filing shows.
Cofco Meat follows Dali Foods Group Co and seasoning producer Yihai International Holding Ltd (頤海) in pursuing a Hong Kong listing to fund expansion.
First-time share sales in the territory have raised US$19.1 billion this year, down from US$21.1 billion during the same period last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Other cornerstone investors in the Cofco Meat IPO include China Life Insurance Co Ltd (中國人壽保險) and China Life Franklin Asset Management Co (中國人壽富蘭克林資產管理).
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained