China's Spring Airlines has offered 100 million shares up for subscription, as it gears towards a listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE).
The 12 January offer priced each share at CNY18.16 ($2.93). This will raise approximately CNY1.82 billion, significantly lower than the CNY2.53 billion the carrier had targeted in its prospectus.
A majority (60%) of the shares will go towards institutional investors, while the remaining 40% will be taken up by retail investors. The shares offered to retail investors are 344.9 times oversubscribed, says Spring in a disclosure on the SSE.
A spokesman tells Flightglobal that the carrier is targeting to list on the SSE before the lunar new year in mid-February.
The low-cost carrier had said that proceeds from the share sale will be used to fund the purchase of nine Airbus A320s and three A320 simulators. Some CNY900 million will also go towards working capital.
Spring will become China’s first privately-owned carrier to be listed. Five carriers: Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Hainan Airlines and Shandong Airlines are already listed. Juneyao Airlines is also seeking to list on the SSE.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
