Huaneng rebounds with $800m IPO

9 June 2011

Chinese wind firm Huaneng Renewables has bounced back from last year’s shelved fundraising attempt to raise as much as HK$6.2 billion (US$800 million) in an initial public offering (IPO) ahead of joining the Hong Kong bourse this Friday.

The renewables arm of China Huaneng Group sold 2.49 billion shares at HK$2.50 each, Bloomberg reported, quoting two unnamed sources “with knowledge of the matter”. The price is broadly in the mid range of the $2.28-2.98 stated in its prospectus.

Reuters said the raising netted HK$5.93 billion.

Huaneng did not return requests for comment before publication.

The wind-farm operator relaunched the fundraising after dumping its US$1.3 billion IPO last December to due to market volatility.

The wind company’s return to the market appears to reflect a growing appetite for Chinese renewable energy, partly driven by the post-Fukushima nuclear rethink, and the rise of Chinese companies seeking Hong Kong listings.

The renewable power arm of Datang, a Chinese wind power company, raised more than US$640 million when it joined the Hong Kong bourse in December, while Chinese wind turbine maker Goldwind shook the tin for US$1 billion to list on the HK exchange in October.

In December 2009, China Longyuan Power Group raised $2.2 billion in its Hong Kong IPO.

Institutional investors made up the majority (93.5%) of Huaneng’s IPO allocations while retail investors took up the remaining 6.5%, well below the 10% portion earmarked for retail buyers, reports say.

The company posted 2010 profits of RMB 609.4 million (US$94 million) on revenues of RMB1.7 billion. It had 3.5GW of installed wind power capacity as of 31 December 2010 with a further 1.2GW in construction and a project pipeline of around 73GW additional capacity.

Charlotte Dudley