Energy

Huaneng Renewables shares tumble in HK debut after IPO

(Agencies)
Updated: 2011-06-10 15:58

Huaneng Renewables Corp, the wind-power unit of China's biggest electricity producer, fell 11.2 percent on its first day of trading in Hong Kong after raising HK$6.23 billion ($800 million) in an IPO, Bloomberg?reported on Friday.

The stock slid to HK$2.22 from the HK$2.50 offer price and was at HK$2.31 at the midday break in Hong Kong, compared with a 0.7 percent decline in the benchmark Hang Seng Index. Three phone calls to the Beijing-based company's investor relations department weren't immediately answered.

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"The timing isn't good," Peng Lin, a Beijing-based analyst at BOCOM International Holdings Co, said by phone today. "Investor concern over the market outlook is driving the shares down." Huaneng will rebound in a few days, Peng said.

Wind-power stocks declined this week after the US Trade Representative said China agreed to end subsidies to manufacturers of wind-turbine components. China's Special Fund for Wind Power Manufacturing illegally required aid recipients to use Chinese-made parts, according to a US complaint filed in December with the World Trade Organization.

The China Huaneng Group Corp unit sold 2.49 billion shares, near the middle of the range marketed to investors earlier this month, in the nation's second-biggest clean-energy share sale this year. The company scrapped an earlier listing plan because of unexpected and excessive market volatility, the company said on Dec 13.

China's target of 110 gigawatts of installed wind capacity by 2015 has spurred expansion in the world's biggest market for the alternative-energy source. The nation added 17 gigawatts of wind capacity in 2010, about 67 percent more than a year earlier, bringing its total to 42.5 gigawatts, according to New Energy Finance.

Sinovel Wind Group Co, the country's biggest maker of wind turbines, raised 9.5 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) in an initial public offering in January. The stock has fallen 8 percent this week and 38 percent since the IPO.

China Datang Corp Renewable Power Co, the wind unit of China Datang Corp, raised HK$5.3 billion in an initial public offering in December, selling shares at HK$2.33 each. The stock traded at HK$1.99 today after declining 8 percent this week.

"Wind projects have become more attractive recently, especially in the face of the rising cost of coal power in China," Justin Wu, the wind manager of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said in an e-mail. "However, grid curtailment and the turbine quality of domestic suppliers continue to remain serious concerns." More than 90 percent of Huaneng's projects use domestic turbines, the most of any large Chinese wind developer, Wu said.

China Investment Corp, Temasek Holdings Pte and General Electric Co (GE) are among key investors who agreed to buy a combined $415 million of stock in Huaneng Renewables' IPO, the prospectus shows. The Chinese sovereign wealth fund subscribed for $60 million of shares, while Temasek, Singapore's state investment company, agreed to invest $50 million, the document shows.

Huaneng Renewables plans to increase its installed wind capacity by 45 percent to about 5.1 gigawatts this year, with most projects located in Liaoning, Inner Mongolia and Shandong provinces. At the end of last year it set a target of 73.5 gigawatts of projects, without saying when it expected to reach that goal.