Small Asian IPO deals take centre stage in adverse market

By Elzio Barreto

HONG KONG (REUTERS) - A few companies in Hong Kong, India and Singapore are drawing attention with their seemingly adventurous IPO plans in an inhospitable global market, but their fund-raising mission is less foolhardy than it looks.

Interior designer LC Group and construction firm LEAP Holdings are meeting investors in Hong Kong to pitch their offerings. In India, logistics company Navkar Corp is marketing its IPO, while Prabhat Dairy is launching its share sale this week. In Singapore, autoparts maker Jiangxi Jiangling Chassis Co is drawing up plans to tap the equity market. The deals are small - up to $241 million in total. But their compactness means bankers need fewer investors to fill order books. Smaller offerings also tend to attract retail investors.

    But what about the bigger deals? On the radar are a series of sizable offerings including those of China Reinsurance (Group) Corp, China Huarong Asset Management and Taikang Life Insurance. They would need a big group of institutional investors and an army of retail investors to help take their billion-dollar deals over the finish-line. The companies are slated to launch their IPOs in the second half of the year.

For graphic on new Asia listings click on http://link.reuters.com/buz45w

Concerns about a prolonged Chinese economic slowdown and fears over volatile shares could force some companies to delay their deals, stunting the run of IPOs this year. So far in 2015, IPO issuance in the Asia-Pacific has jumped nearly 25 percent from a year earlier to $44.5 billion. The real test - bankers and analysts say - will be when and if sizeable offerings move ahead in coming weeks.

    "A lot of deals will need to be put on hold under these market circumstances," said Jasper Chan, corporate finance officer at Hong Kong brokerage Phillip Securities. "Markets won't recover that soon, not this month. Next year it will get better, but this year I think there's a lot of uncertainty around the world. It's not easy to forecast what's coming."

(Editing by Ryan Woo)