China Citic Sec says $2 billion HK share offer well received

HONG KONG (Reuters) - The $2 billion Hong Kong share offering of Citic Securities Co Ltd (600030.SS) has been very well received by investors despite market conditions, Chairman Wang Dongming told a media conference on Wednesday.

"We can do nothing about the markets, but we can run the company well," Dongming, speaking in mandarin, said. "After numerous meetings with investors, we presented our case to investors and believe our case was very well received," he added.

Citic Securities, with a market value of $19 billion, is China's largest publicly traded brokerage. It aims to price the offer on September 28 with trading scheduled for Oct 6.

Hong Kong stocks have been hit hard, with the benchmark share index .HSI ending at a two-year low on Wednesday, amid mounting worries over European debt crisis. The market turmoil has forced some small IPOs to pull their offerings.

Citic Securities has received strong backing from the so-called cornerstone investors, including Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd TEM.UL, Kuwait Investment Authority, Brazilian investment bank BTG Pactual BTG.UL and U.S.-based hedge fund Och-Ziff Capital Management (OZM.N) and others.

The Shenzhen-based company secured $900 million orders from seven cornerstone investors. [ID:nL3E7KE0G9]. As a result, Citic Securities' offer was fully covered even before the official launch last week.

Such investors back many Asian listings, committing to buy large, guaranteed stakes and agreeing to a lock-up period during which they will not sell their shares.

Citic Securities is offering 995.3 million shares at an indicative price range of HK$12.84 to HK$15.2 each, to raise as much as HK$15.13 billion ($1.94 billion), according to terms of the offering.

(Reporting by Elzio Barreto; Editing by Denny Thomas and Elaine Hardcastle)