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).
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
Taiwanese manufacturers have a chance to play a key role in the humanoid robot supply chain, Tongtai Machine and Tool Co (東台精機) chairman Yen Jui-hsiung (嚴瑞雄) said yesterday. That is because Taiwanese companies are capable of making key parts needed for humanoid robots to move, such as harmonic drives and planetary gearboxes, Yen said. This ability to produce these key elements could help Taiwanese manufacturers “become part of the US supply chain,” he added. Yen made the remarks a day after Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) are jointly
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) expects its addressable market to grow by a low single-digit percentage this year, lower than the overall foundry industry’s 15 percent expansion and the global semiconductor industry’s 10 percent growth, the contract chipmaker said yesterday after reporting the worst profit in four-and-a-half years in the fourth quarter of last year. Growth would be fueled by demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, a moderate recovery in consumer electronics and an increase in semiconductor content, UMC said. “UMC’s goal is to outgrow our addressable market while maintaining our structural profitability,” UMC copresident Jason Wang (王石) told an online earnings
MARKET SHIFTS: Exports to the US soared more than 120 percent to almost one quarter, while ASEAN has steadily increased to 18.5 percent on rising tech sales The proportion of Taiwan’s exports directed to China, including Hong Kong, declined by more than 12 percentage points last year compared with its peak in 2020, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday last week. The decrease reflects the ongoing restructuring of global supply chains, driven by escalating trade tensions between Beijing and Washington. Data compiled by the ministry showed China and Hong Kong accounted for 31.7 percent of Taiwan’s total outbound sales last year, a drop of 12.2 percentage points from a high of 43.9 percent in 2020. In addition to increasing trade conflicts between China and the US, the ministry said
RSS