The Hong Kong listing marks Prudential’s switch to a dual primary listing, with London. Singapore is a secondary listing.

In Hong Kong the shares opened at HK$59.70 and closed at HK$57.20, with a little under 1.1m shares traded. The closing price is equivalent to 512p, effectively down 3.4%, and reflects the fall in equity markets in the US and then Asia since the Pru had closed at 530p on Monday. The Hang Seng fell by 3.5%.

In trading on Tuesday morning, the London-listed stock dipped as low as 506.39p in the first hour of trading before recovering to 515p at 9am London time, the point when the Hong Kong market closed. The shares were flat to Hong Kong at 512p at 11.30am London time.

The three banks were working to ensure the stability of trading, in the knowledge that some accounts may try to trade the arbitrage between London and Hong Kong, yet there appears to have been little opportunity to do so as the stocks moved relatively tightly and volumes were so low.

The 3.5% fall in the Hang Seng index is likely to have limited investors’ desire to buy into a new stock. However Asian investors have only a short window if they want to get involved in the Pru rights issue. While shares are fungible between London and Hong Kong, the rights are not. Investors will therefore need to get on the register by the June 3 ex-rights date if they wish to ensure participation, which leaves them only a few more days with T+2 settlement.

JPM has promoted the current head of ECM Asia Pacific ex-Japan Kester Ng, to the post of co-head of Asia Pacific (including Australia and Japan). Ng will hold the post alongside Doug Howland.

Mangla’s motivation to go to BofA Merrill was not just the money but the fact that he was going to get an expanded role of heading the equity-linked solutions group, Asia-Pacific (ex-Japan) as well as South-East Asia ECM. Mangla is a veteran and well respected banker in the equity-linked space but he obviously wanted to grow beyond this space to a broader ECM role.

It is heard that JPM did not guarantee any bonus to Mangla like BofA Merrill so the motivation for Mangla to stay back was clearly the expanded role. It is clear that JPM wanted Mangla and his team to stay back in the bank because his departure would have left a gaping hole in the US bank’s Asian equity-linked franchise.

Mangla has been instrumental in making JPM a powerhouse in Asian equity-linked and has worked at the bank for 8-1/2 years. In November 2003, Mangla was appointed as head of equity-linked origination in Asia (ex-Japan). In the new co-head of ECM role, Mangla and Khullar will be responsible for the day-to-day management of the region’s ECM. ECM teams in the region will report to the two of them. They will report into Ng and Howland. All of them will also report to Todd Marin, head of IB Asia at JPM and Viswas Raghavan, the global head of ECM.

Aloke Gupte, a member of JPM’s equity-linked team in Hong Kong who was also following Mangla to BofA Merrill to take up a post of director and head of convertible bonds, Asia-Pacific (ex-Japan), is also not going. He is set to take over the post of head of Asia Pacific (including Australia and Japan) equity-linked (Mangla’s old post) at JPM.

It is a huge move for Gupte who has been with JPM for over five years and only recently became part of the equity-linked franchise.

The issue was smooth, given that Asseco has been growing steadily in the banking software business, comfortably beating consensus in its first quarter results. It has been eyeing acquisitions across Europe, including Spain, Italy, Germany and Finland, and has also talked of buying a stake in a Nasdaq-listed software company. UniCredit was lead bank.

On offer are 26.7m secondary shares in a SKr46–SKr57 price range. A further 3.8m shares make up the greenshoe. Bookbuilding runs until June 1, with trading due to commence the next day.

Leads report very strongly positive feedback from premarketing, which gave confidence to launch the bookbuild despite continuing volatility. The discount retailer has an aggressive expansion plan, but it is self-financing and has shown a top-line CAGR of 21% through the expansion of the last five years. As the company generates a lot of cash investors can still look forward to a dividend of 50% of net profit, which corresponds to a yield of 3.6% at the bottom of guidance.

ABG Sundal Collier and Carnegie are joint bookrunners.

The staggered sell-down is designed to allow the shares to season and, hopefully, sell at a premium to where they are offered. The strategy is typical in situations where there is a demutualisation of institution involving myriad owners. In conjunction with IPO, the exchange will undertake a restructuring in which each of the 960 seat holders will receive various classes of stock.

A total of 50 seat holders will sell a combined 2.1m shares on the IPO. Within 60 to 120 days, the exchange will tender for additional shares with proceeds raised from the 9.6m shares it is selling on the IPO. Holders of the Class A-1 and Class A-2 shares, each representing 44.3m shares, will be eligible to sell 180 days and 360 days, respectively, after the IPO. Staggered sell-downs are typically used when exchanges go public, though the interim tender is relatively unique.

The implication is that seat holders are hesitant to sell on the IPO. While partially true, there are also tax consequences that cap the number of secondary sellers able to sell on the IPO. Structuring the deal as a “synthetic secondary” helps create a more sizable initial float. The structure also reflects the fact that the exchange has little need for capital, suggested FIG bankers close to the situation.

The 11.7m shares that are being sold on the IPO represent an 11.4% float. And while no timetable and price range were offered, the exchange has indicated it would like to complete the IPO before the end of the second quarter, suggesting a June launch is likely. In April, the exchange said that shares will be offered at a minimum of US$25 apiece, implying a market capitalisation of US$2.56bn.

Goldman Sachs is sole global coordinator, with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, Citadel Securities, Citigroup, JP Morgan and UBS enlisted as bookrunners. There are a total of 18 banks, many of them seat holders, listed on the offering prospectus.

Banco do Brasil’s free float currently stands at 21.8%, below the 25% threshold required to meeting listing standards of the Novo Mercado.  BNDES, Previ and the Treasury are expected to exercise their subscription rights, suggested analysts at Credit Suisse. That would leave just R$1.9bn of the primary stock sale available to the public. Inclusion of secondary shares, however, would boost the effective public float by R$4.4bn to R$6.3bn.

Officially, the bank has not announced lead banks for the landmark transaction. Unofficially, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Banco do Brasil Securities, BTG Pactual, Citigroup and JP Morgan have already won seats at the table.

If the deal gets done, these investors and bankers say, it will come below range R$10.75–$13.75 range it is currently talked. The company is selling 55.8m shares in the all-primary offering. Bradesco, Credit Suisse, BTG Pactual, Banco do Brasil are the bookrunners with Votorantim, Espirito Santo Investments and HSBC coming as co-managers.

Despite being privately held, Julio Simoes is a very well-known name in Brazil as it is one of the largest road logistics operators in the country. So, bankers believe, the leads may enlist the support of local investors, maybe even with strategic interests.

For the A-share tranche, CICC, Citic Securities, Galaxy Securities and Guotai Junan Securities are the leads, with China Merchants Securities and Haitong Securities as financial advisers.

ABC and the mandated banks will hold a kick-off meeting tomorrow afternoon in Beijing. The deal is expected to be the world’s largest IPO this year and perhaps the world’s largest ever IPO if it raises more than Industrial and Commercial Bank of China did in 2006. ICBC raised US$21.9bn through a A/H IPO.