What’s new: Cooking oil giant Yihai Kerry Arawana Holdings Co. Ltd. has priced its planned IPO at 25.7 yuan per share, putting it on track to net a whopping 13.9 billion yuan ($2.04 billion).
The figure would be a record for the Shenzhen ChiNext Board where it plans to list.
It would value the China unit of Singaporean food giant Wilmar International Ltd. at 139.3 billion yuan.
The background: In a prospectus filed earlier this month to China’s securities regulator, Yihai Kerry said it would issue 542 million shares, equating to 10% of the company.
It said it would use the money raised for edible oil and flour production, and to develop processing factories for cereals and oils.
Yihai Kerry is best known for making the iconic red-and-yellow packaged Arawana cooking oil that can be found within arms’ length of woks China-wide, and for its association with founder Robert Kuok, who is Malaysia’s richest man.
The planned listing follows a blockbuster Hong Kong IPO by another ubiquitous consumer brand, Chinese bottled-water maker Nongfu Spring Co. Ltd., which raised HK$8.35 billion on its debut this month. The sum helped founder Zhong Shanshan overtake Alibaba founder Jack Ma as China’s richest man.
Cooking Oil Giant Gets Go-Ahead for Possibly Record-Shattering Shenzhen IPO
Contact reporter Flynn Murphy (flynnmurphy@caixin.com) and editor Heather Mowbray (heathermowbray@caixin.com)
