By Prudence Ho
HONG KONG--Swiss bank UBS AG and Singapore sovereign wealth fund
GIC Pte. Ltd. are among investors that started selling nearly a
billion dollars in stock Monday in block trades, taking advantage
of the recent surge in Hong Kong shares.
On Monday, UBS, one of the early investors in China Cinda Asset
Management Co. (1359.HK), started selling about $303 million in
shares in the Chinese debt-clearing agency at a price of 4.72 to
4.87 Hong Kong dollars (US$0.61-US$0.63) a share, representing a
discount of 2% to 5% to the stock's Monday's closing price of
HK$4.97, according to a term sheet seen by The Wall Street Journal
Monday. China Cinda, which went public in Hong Kong in late 2013,
has seen its shares rise 29% this month.
Heavy buying by mainland Chinese investors has buoyed Hong
Kong's stock market. The benchmark Hang Seng Index rose for an
eighth day in a row on Monday and settled above 28000 for the first
time since December of 2007. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index closed up
2.7% at 28,016 on Monday.
Also taking advantage of the market's rally was Great Eastern
Holdings Ltd., the insurance unit of Singapore's Oversea-Chinese
Banking Corp Ltd. (O39.SG), which is raising up to US$568 million
from the sale of 85 million shares in mainland insurer New China
Life Insurance Co. (1336.HK) at HK$50.50 to HK$51.80 a share. The
range represents a discount of 1.5% to 4% to the stock's Monday
closing price of HK$52.60.
GIC is also raising about US$65 million by selling shares in Far
East Horizon Ltd. (3360.HK), a financial leasing unit owned by
Sinochem Group. Techlink Investment Pte. Ltd., a unit of the
Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, is selling 60.47 million shares
in an indicative range of HK$8.30 to HK$8.50 a share, representing
a discount of 1.2% to 3.5% to Far East's Monday closing price of
HK$8.60.
All three block trades--which will raise nearly US$1
billion--will close overnight.
Write to Prudence Ho at prudence.ho@wsj.com