The initial public offerings (IPOs) of five companies last week attracted 801 billion yuan (US$100 billion) in subscription funds despite the unlikely odds investors had of winning the right to buy shares.

 

Chinese regulations require investors to apply or subscribe to buy shares in an IPO by putting funds up front which are frozen for four days. Potential investors are then selected randomly in a computerized lottery. Unlucky investors who are unsuccessful in winning the right to buy new shares have their funds returned within four days.

 

The five mainland companies -- Hengdiandongci, Baoli Property, Tianyuan Science and Technology, Weiertai and Daqin Railway -- started their IPOs on the two Chinese bourses, Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchange last week.

 

The recent IPOs have all been far over subscribed. Daqin Railway Co., the largest of the five, planned to raise 14 billion yuan through its IPO and received subscription applications totaling 425.6 billion yuan.

 

The IPO's of the four smaller companies in last week's IPO sweepstakes each saw about 130 billion yuan line up to buy company stock even though Weiertai was only offering stock worth 100 million yuan and Hengdiandonci sought to raise 500 million yuan.

 

New share prices often jump in the first days of trading and investors who are lucky enough to win the right to buy shares in an IPO can make tidy profits by quickly selling their shares.

 

Last month, the IPO of the state-owned Bank of China (BOC) froze as much as 540 billion yuan in subscription funds, a record high among companies listed on the mainland stock exchange.

 

Only 1.41 percent of the total subscriber funds put up for Daqin's new share offering had their number picked in an IPO lottery. The ratio for the BOC was 1.94 percent, the Shanghai Securities News said.

 

Daqin's IPO is the second largest after the BOC since China resumed IPOs last month following a year-long suspension.

 

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Air China are also expected to start their IPOs in the mainland stock market this year.

 

Frequent refinancing and IPOs were blamed for contributing to the four-year stock index slump in China.

 

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), the country's securities market watchdog, suspended refinancing of listed companies as well as IPOs throughout 2005.

 

(Xinhua News Agency July 27, 2006)