Club Med’s owner Fosun Tourism prices Hong Kong IPO at bottom of price range amid market rout
- Forum Tourism sold 214.2 million shares at HK$15.60, the bottom of a price range
- The company’s shares will commence trading in Hong Kong on December 14
China’s Fosun Tourism Group, operator of the Club Med holiday business, on Friday said it has raised US$428 million in its initial public offering (IPO), pricing shares at the bottom of a marketed range.
Fosun Tourism, part of conglomerate Fosun International Ltd , sold 214.2 million shares at HK$15.60 each, the bottom of an indicative range of HK$15.60 to HK$20.00.
The deal values Fosun Tourism at US$2.44 billion, a stock exchange filing showed. The amount raised could increase to US$492 million if a greenshoe, or over-allotment option, is exercised within one month of the start of trading.
Hong Kong is on track for a bumper year of listings, with US$33.2 billion raised so far, showed data from Refinitiv. But performance has been largely poor with several firms, including big names such as Meituan Dianping and Xiaomi, trading below IPO prices.
Concerns over a China-US trade war and slowing growth in the world’s second-biggest economy have weighed on markets, with Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index down more than 12 per cent this year.
Chinese medical tech platform WuXi AppTec also priced its Hong Kong listing on Friday, raising US$1.01 billion as it sold shares at the middle of its indicative range.
Fosun Tourism, which includes Club Med, as well as a luxury resort in the southern Chinese seaside city of Sanya, is looking to develop new resorts in China and elsewhere as it bets on a continued rise in Chinese tourism.
It opened its US$1.74 billion Atlantis Sanya resort in April, in a province known as China’s Hawaii and targeted by the government for tourism development.
Tourism is a profit growth driver for parent Fosun International, which bought control of Club Med in 2015 for €939 million (US$1.07 billion) after what was then France’s longest takeover saga lasting almost two years.
The conglomerate was co-founded by Guo Guangchang, China’s self-styled version of US billionaire investor Warren Buffett. It reorganised its businesses in 2016, creating Fosun Tourism.
Fosun Tourism booked a loss of 295 million yuan (US$42.5 million) in 2017 and 135 million yuan in the first half of this year, its listing prospectus showed.
Citigroup, CLSA and JP Morgan are the IPO’s joint sponsors. Shares will begin trading on December 14.
