--TRUEnergy appoints Deutsche Bank, UBS and Bank of America
Merrill Lynch for IPO
--The A$3 billion IPO is expected in November, subject to market
conditions
--The listing would be the largest in Australia since late
2010
(Adds background from third paragraph.)
By Caroline Henshaw
SYDNEY--CLP Holdings Ltd.'s (0002.HK) TRUenergy has appointed
Deutsche Bank AG (DB), UBS AG (UBS) and Bank of America Merrill
Lynch (BAC) as the leading banks for its upcoming 3 billion
Australian dollar (US$2.98 billion) initial public offering, or
IPO, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
TRUenergy's long-awaited IPO is expected to take place in
November, subject to market conditions, the people said.
At the touted size, it would be the biggest listing in Australia
since QR National Ltd.'s (QRN.AU) A$4.6 billion offer in late 2010
and would end a two-year drought of large local public offerings.
Local IPOs raised $1.1 billion last year, compared to a total of
$7.4 billion in 2010 and down from $10.2 billion in 2005, according
to data from Dealogic. So far this year, only $227 million has been
raised.
Andrew Brandler, Chief Executive of CLP Holdings Ltd. (0002.HK),
said last month that TRUEnergy's Hong Kong-based owner intends to
maintain a majority stake in its Australian subsidiary, even after
listing, but that increasing the Australian component of its
ownership could help the company develop in the future. The IPO
could also be used to repatriate some of the substantial capital
invested in TRUenergy back to Hong Kong, he said.
Analysts have said that part of the proceeds from selling a
stake in TruEnergy could go towards CLP's moves to jointly buy with
a Chinese state-owned firm, the stake in a power generating joint
venture in Hong Kong.
TRUenergy provides energy to more than 2.7 million Australian
households and owns and operates a host of energy generation and
storage facilities.
In March 2011, TRUenergy completed its A$2.18 billion
acquisition of power assets from Australia's New South Wales state.
In October, the company outlined its intentions to build two
gas-fired power stations in Australia's Queensland state valued at
a combined A$3.6 billion
TRUenergy spokesman Carl Kitchen declined to comment on the
selection of banks. Spokeswomen for all of the banks also declined
to comment on the deal.
UBS, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), Credit Suisse Group AG (CS),
Deutsche Bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA.AU) and the
RBS-CIMB unit of Malaysia's CIMB Group Holdings Bhd. (1023.KU) are
among the banks who pitched, people familiar with the matter
previously said.
Write to Caroline Henshaw at caroline.henshaw@dowjones.com
(Jeffrey Ng and Yvonne Lee in Hong Kong and Gillian Tan in Sydney
contributed to this article.)