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Ying Fang: Three deals this year |
While the IPO of China’s biggest commercial bank, ICBC, is setting records through its $20 billion-plus listing in Hong Kong and Shanghai, other Chinese companies are seeking a different route to raise cash. London’s Alternative Investment Market is hitting the radar screens of Chinese companies at the other end of the size spectrum. The latest firm poised to make an Aim listing is medical outfit China Medstar. Evolution Securities, a specialist China investment banking and securities firm, will arrange the deal, which will price some time this month and is expected to raise about £10 million ($18.7 million).
Although China’s authorities want to establish an onshore market, that development is in its infancy. In the meantime, according to Evolution Securities, there are plenty of local firms that want to list and are eyeing London as a potential market. Ying Fang, CEO of Evolution Securities China in London, says: “Many Chinese companies want to be listed in Hong Kong but it is very difficult. In the UK a company can come to the market in four to five months compared with an average of two years in the US or Hong Kong.”