Hong Kong: Tencent Holdings Ltd, Fidelity International Ltd and Temasek Holdings Pte are planning to invest in the Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) of Chinese snack retailer Busy Ming Group Co, according to people familiar with the matter.
The three firms are poised to be among the cornerstone investors in an IPO that could raise as much as US$500mil, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.
Busy Ming is planning to start taking investor orders as soon as tomorrow, they said.
Deliberations are ongoing and details may change, the people added.
Representatives for Busy Ming, Tencent and Fidelity didn’t respond to requests seeking comment. Singapore state investor Temasek declined to comment.
Busy Ming’s IPO comes as Hong Kong heads toward a record January for first-time share sales, with companies seeking to list before the Lunar New Year holiday in February.
Almost US$4.3bil has been raised through new listings in the city so far this month, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Busy Ming traces its roots back to 2016. A year later, it opened its first store in Changsha, the capital of central China’s Hunan province.
The company reported a profit of 1.56 billion yuan or about US$224mil for the nine months ended last Sept 30, more than three times the amount a year earlier, its prospectus shows.
Its products include baked goods, biscuits, nuts and seeds, other snacks and beverages.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Huatai International are joint sponsors for the IPO. — Bloomberg
