Zijin Mining's Shanghai IPO draws $329 bln -paper
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SHANGHAI, April 17 (Reuters) - Zijin Mining Group (2899.HK), China's second-biggest gold miner, drew 2.3 trillion yuan ($329 billion) in subscriptions to its 9.98 billion yuan Shanghai initial public offer, the official Securities Times reported on Thursday.
The IPO, which offered 1.4 billion local-currency A shares, was priced at 7.13 yuan per share, the top of its indicative range, the paper quoted sources familiar with the matter as saying.
Subscriptions were taken on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Zijin's mainland IPO, which was announced last December, had been delayed partly by a slide in China's stock market. The country's benchmark Shanghai Composite Index .SSEC has fallen about 37 percent since the start of the year and is trading near one-year lows.
Zijin's Hong Kong-listed shares have tumbled almost 40 percent this year. On Wednesday, they ended at HK$7.44, down 2.2 percent on the day.
Zijin sold 420 million shares to institutional investors and 980 million shares to retail buyers in its IPO.
The allotment rate for institutional investors was relatively high at about 2.5 percent, the Securities Times said, indicating a cautious stance by investors.
The report said several investors may have opted to subscribe for the retail portion to avoid a three-month lock-up period, given the market's weakness.
Several shares that have listed in recent months, including China Pacific Insurance (601601.SS), China Shipping Container Lines (601866.SS) and China Coal Energy Corp (601898.SS), have fallen below their IPO prices over the past month as the market slumped.
Zijin Mining's subscription volume compares with 3.08 trillion yuan for China Railway Construction Corp's (601186.SS) IPO in February, the fourth-highest for a mainland IPO, and a record 3.38 trillion yuan for China Railway Group (601390.SS) (0390.HK) last November.
Zijin will use the proceeds to fund expansion projects, mainly involving the mining and processing of gold and copper. ($1=6.991 Yuan) (Reporting by Edmund Klamann; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree)
