Hot institutional demand for China COSCO offering.

(From The Standard)

Byline: GladysTang

China COSCO Holdings received orders for four times as many shares as it had on offer to institutional investors, though retail demand remains tepid at best, sources said. The shipping flagship of Beijing- based China Ocean Shipping (Group) hopes to raise HK$12.9 billion from its initial public offering of 2.244 billion shares, with 90 percent allocated to institutions and the rest to individual investors.

The offering benefited from general investor enthusiasm for shipping shares. ``The institutional tranche is already four times covered as the shipping stocks rebound,'' a source close to the deal said. …