Investors keen on QR National’s IPO
Australian coal hauler and transporter QR National Ltd. has received keen interest from foreign investment managers for its $5 billion dollar initial public offering (IPO) before its formal offering on November 22.
QR National officials are now on its remaining two weeks of marketing and convincing investors of the benefits of acquiring the company's stocks.
QR National CEO Mr. Lance Hockridge in interviews from New York with Sydney Morning Herald and Wall Street Journal, fund managers are quite "warm" and would likely have a strong support for the company's IPO this month.
Mr. Hockridge has dismissed concerns that the float is overpriced and noted that this is a way of tapping into the booming Asian market.
He is in New York today to meet international investors and will also visit the US west coast before returning to Australia before the bookbuild on November 18 and 19.
QR is Australia's largest coal hauler and transporter in terms of tonnage moved and delivered to key Asian countries led by China and Japan.
QR National claims that the IPO is a safe way of engaging into the Asian economic success.
The offer document of QR National float, the biggest public share offering since Telstra's privatisation in 1997, has been made public on Tuesday where the Queensland government is anticipating a fund raise that could go beyond the $5 billion mark.
The offer document of QR National float, the biggest public share offering since Telstra's privatisation in 1997, has been made public on Tuesday where the Queensland government is anticipating a fund raise that could go beyond the $5 billion mark.
Dubbed by the state government as a durable future investment initiative, the QR National sale would issue a total of 1.68 billion shares and investors would need to shell out a maximum of $3.00 to acquire a share but individual investors would only be required to pay a maximum of $2.80 per share.
So far, potential investors vying for the QR National prospectus have racked up more than one million as of the Brisbane release of the offer sheet for the initial public offering (IPO), which is only a key part of Queensland's planned $15 billion worth of public assets divestiture.
The controversial sale attracted criticisms from various sectors while the uncertain financial environment prompted pessimistic projections from investors following the dismal result of the recent Myer float.
Such scenarios, however, failed to dampen the upbeat outlook of the Queensland government on the QR National privatisation effort as State Treasurer Andrew Fraser asserted that the public float would be largely supported by resources demand coming from China and India.
In launching the Brisbane IPO on Tuesday, Mr Fraser stressed that the float's core strength lies on the insatiable demand by both China and India for Australian resources, underscoring that "if you believe in the growth story of Asia, you can believe in this stock. It is a very durable investment."
QR National would officially enter the trading boards of the Australian Securities Exchange on November 22 and is poised to be regarded as one of the country's top 50 companies in terms of market capitalisation.
At present, the company's operations centre on delivering coal from Australian mine sites to ports for shipping to consuming countries such as Japan, Korea, China and India.
QR National is managing a span of up to 2300 kilometres of track and its overall value is now placed at an estimated $7.8 billion.