MGM China's listing expected to raise $1.5 bn

A venture between MGM Resorts International and the daughter of a Hong Kong casino mogul looked set on Friday to raise as much as $1.5 billion in a planned stock market listing, highlighting the strong appetite for stocks having a large exposure to China.

MGM China, whose main asset is a giant hotel and casino in the Chinese gambling hub of Macao, said it had priced the shares for its IPO at 15.34 Hong Kong dollars each, or $1.97, at the top of a previously announced price range.

With total proceeds of up to $1.5 billion, MGM China’s market debut will be one of the largest in Hong Kong so far this year.

The offering takes total issuance volumes on the Hong Kong stock exchange since January 1 to $18.9 billion, 215 per cent more than the total raised during the period last year, according to Dealogic, and underscores the rapid growth the exchange has enjoyed in recent years.

Hong Kong was the top market for initial public offerings in 2010. The offerings last year topped $52 billion, according to Thomson Reuters, easily outperforming the New York Stock Exchange’s total of $35 billion.

Most of the activity in Hong Kong has been from Chinese companies going public.

Increasingly, however, the city is also becoming a destination for non-Asian companies.

Among the other firms planning to list in the city in the coming weeks is suitcase maker Samsonite, owned by the private equity firm CVC Capital Partners. Samsonite is due to start marketing efforts for its offering in the coming week, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation.

Prada, the Italian luxury fashion house, is lining up a listing for June. Analysts have said Prada’s initial public offering could raise about $2 billion.

Its roadshow for the listing was expected to start June 6, said a person with knowledge of the planned transaction.

Resourcehouse, a mining company owned by Clive Palmer, an Australian billionaire, has said it would issue the prospectus for its planned market debut in Hong Kong “on or around” Monday, with a trading start expected on June 10.

Meanwhile, shares in MGM China are expected to start trading next Friday, according to the company. Pansy Ho, daughter of casino mogul Stanley Ho, is lowering her 50 per cent stake in the company as part of the transaction. The proceeds from the sale will make her one of the richest people in China.

Gambling revenue in Macao, a former Portuguese colony about an hour’s ferry ride from Hong Kong, has soared in recent years, and now dwarfs that of Las Vegas.

©2011 The New York Times News Service